Chinese Lunar New Year

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:35): Thank you, Deputy Speaker. On 18 January I had the pleasure of attending the opening ceremony of the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China at the Adelaide Town Hall where I met the newly-appointed Consul General Mr Hongwei Rao. I know that its opening was welcomed by the Chinese community here in South Australia, and it was a timely opening with the Chinese New Year just around the corner.

The Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar, and many in China enjoy seven consecutive days of holidays known as 'The Golden Week'. In China people get together with family and friends for the New Year's Eve dinner, making Chinese New Year the world's largest annual migration of people with, I am told, an estimated 200 million people travelling at this time.

A growing number of Chinese people choose also to spend the New Year travelling internationally, and I am pleased to say that just this past weekend I met with a Chinese gentleman who chose this time to travel to Australia, to Adelaide, to visit his daughter who is studying nursing here.

To the Australian/Chinese community here in South Australia it is an important family time. Chinese New Year celebrations kicked off in Adelaide last week and celebrations will continue with cultural performances and banquets across the state. This coming Saturday 13 February from 11am to 10.30pm the Adelaide 2016 Lunar New Year street party in Moonta Street, Chinatown and Gouger Street will showcase performances from different cultural groups and traditions of arts, crafts and foods.

Chinatown Adelaide President Mr George Chin said that calling the event Lunar New Year rather than Chinese New Year recognised the state's multicultural community. He said that South Australia is very good at promoting multiculturalism and this event celebrates all Asian culture but especially Chinese culture, and this is significant given that the Vietnamese New Year celebrations are taking place at the same time.

Also on the same day in the evening I will be attending the opening of the Vietnamese New Year Tet Festival 2016 at Regency Park. Tet is the most important celebration in the Vietnamese cultural calendar. It celebrates the arrival of spring and is based on the Vietnamese variation of the Chinese lunar solar calendar. Tet is generally celebrated on the same day as the Chinese New Year except when the one hour time difference between China and Vietnam results in a new moon occurring on a different day, and I was told this last evening at a Vietnamese restaurant by one of the people serving there.

Vietnamese customs include preparing special holiday food, ancestor worship, New Year's greetings and giving lucky money to children. It is a time for pilgrims and family reunions and visiting relatives and also temples.

Deputy Speaker, the People's Republic of China follows the Gregorian calendar for its day-to-day business, however, the dates of the Chinese New Year and other festivals are determined by the Chinese calendar. Each successive year is named after one of 12 animals with the 12-year cycles repeated. There exists a number of versions of the story behind the development of the Chinese zodiac and all are based on a race called by an emperor to determine the animals to be represented. According to the Chinese zodiac you take on the characteristics of the animal associated with the year of your birth (and I am talking personality-wise not physically speaking), with these characteristics also influenced by the time you were born and the fixed element you belong to, either water, metal, wood, fire or earth, as well as the influence of Yin and Yang.

Babies born in the 2016 Chinese calendar year, the year of the monkey, will share characteristics of being smart, witty, versatile and intelligent. I wish our South Australian Chinese, Vietnamese and all Asian communities that celebrate this event a happy, prosperous and healthy new year 2016 and look forward to attending their celebrations over the next couple of weeks.