Posted to Waverley Leader on 9/2/2009
A Special Report on the Glen Waverley Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival
http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/your-news/story/a-special-report-on-the-glen-waverley-chinese-new-year-lantern-festival/ (has been removed)
Glen Waverley Chinese New Year & Lantern Festival held on Sunday 8 Feb 2009 at Kingsway, Glen Waverley is the best suburban Chinese New Year celebration I have ever attended. I was at the festival from the start to the end. A few drops of precious rain came down momentarily and lasted for less than 5 minutes. This token drizzle was more of a symbolic cleansing ritual prior to the real swing of things. It definitely did not dampen the spirit of the enthusiastic festival goers, and the crowd soon built up around 1:30 pm.
The rhythms of the drums and gongs went on continuously after the Mayor declared the opening of the festival. The rhythm for the lion dance was different from that for the dragon dance. Besides entertaining the crowd, the lions and dragons also blessed some of the businesses – the formal shops and the street stalls. There were 2 golden and 2 silver lions. Whether they danced on the street, or on steel columns of various heights, their performance is awesome!
In addition to the lions, there were 5 “large” dragons, and a baby dragon. Comparing these dragons with “Dai Loong” – the Big Dragon which performs in Melbourne City festivities, they looked more like large King Prawns! By the way, the Chinese dragons do not resemble the Western dragons, in that they don’t blow fire, and have no wings. However, they do have many legs like millipedes.
The atmosphere was electric, and everybody of all ages just loves the performances of these legendary animals.
Chinese throughout the world are well known for their passion for food. Since there is a good mix of Chinese from different parts Asia residing in the City, there was no surprise that a good variety of barbequed skewed meat and tasty bite-size food items on sale. For quenching the thirst, ice kacang – flavoured ice shavings, was a fantastic alternative to canned soft drinks.
It was a program-pack and fun-fill day - cooking demonstration, cultural dances, karaoke, Ma Jiang, Chinese chess game, chopstick game, etc. There was also an air castle for the kids to jump about. Local residents from City of Monash as well as from other suburbs came for a good time - and they were not disappointed. Despite the doom and gloom news about the global financial crisis and meltdown, there was no sign of recession in the street. The surrounding shops and restaurants and the food stalls enjoyed good turnover. The success of the festival, however, had a negative impact on the food stalls inside The Glen Shopping Centre. Being held on Sunday, a normally busy trading day, the stall-holders would have experienced a fall in takings.
City of Monash, festival organising committee and all other bodies involved in this festival, I salute you for a job well done.
