Chinese New Year

In this area, we tend to only hear about Chinese New Year through news stories of events held in larger centres like Bendigo and Melbourne.  However, it is an important annual event for Chinese people everywhere.  With traditions going back around 3500 years, New Year in China is a time for families to return to their home villages for reunions, feasting and celebration.  The family reunion dinner is the highlight.

Chinese New Year is celebrated over a fifteen day period, traditionally ending with a lantern festival.  This usually incorporates lion and dragon dances.  There is plenty of colour (red), bright lights and noise, the latter provided by drums and firecrackers.  One of many legends about Chinese New Year says that this is designed to scare off monsters that would attack villages at the start of new year.

Numerous local Victorian newspaper reports of Chinese New Year celebrations on the goldfields suggest that the European residents were only too pleased to join in the celebrations by purchasing and setting off fireworks.  These were hard to come by from any sources other than the Chinese.  Anyone old enough to remember Guy Fawkes Night (November 5) in Australia will appreciate the amount of pleasure (and potential danger) that this could bring to people of all ages.  How good was it to blow stuff up?

Timing

Chinese New Year always begins with the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February, so the date varies each year.  In 2024, the new moon was on February 10, while the previous year it was on 22 January.  Because the date is associated with a phase of the moon, Chinese New Year is sometimes referred to as the Lunar New Year.

Chinese astrologers divide up star signs by years, whereas Western astrologers use months (Gemini, Pisces etc) when the stars/constellations are at their zenith.  Each year in the Chinese system is associated with a particular animal.  There are twelve different ones, with each repeated every twelve years.  2024 is the year of the Dragon, which last occurred in 2012 (then 2000, 1988 etc).  

As we know, Western astrologers provide horoscopes, as well as associating certain personality traits with certain star signs.  The Chinese do the same.  It depends on the year of your birth.  Anyone born in the year of the Dragon is said to be charismatic, intelligent, confident, powerful, naturally lucky and gifted.  They strive to do everything to the best of their ability.

You might like to compare your supposed personality characteristics under the two systems.  Don’t be surprised if you find some contradictory information.

Goldfield celebrations

It is hard to find stories about Chinese New Year celebrations on the Waranga goldfields.  A brief mention appeared in the Waranga Chronicle in January 1879, the tone a tad sarcastic.  “The Chinaman’s New Year’s festival was commenced on Tuesday last and a considerable amount of (gun)powder was wasted in the shape of crackers in its inauguration.” ² 

However, because of the long-standing traditions, it is certain that celebrations would have taken place every year, and anywhere that the Chinese congregated in any number, such as Rushworth and Whroo (and later Graytown).  It was probably a somewhat melancholy time for the Chinese, as they would be missing family and friends who were so far away.  

The Chinese on the Waranga goldfields would lack the resources to stage a major event, although fireworks and other paraphernalia could have been obtained by local Chinese stores, having been transported up to the area by Chinese merchants in Melbourne.  Some of the locals may have travelled to places with much larger Chinese populations, like Castlemaine or Bendigo, to participate in celebrations there.

Celebrations would have tailed off in the early part of the 20th century as the effects of the White Australia policy became apparent and the remaining Chinese became more isolated.  However, with a current Chinese diaspora in Australia of well over a million people (5.5% of the population), vibrant Chinese New Year celebrations are now a significant and enriching cultural event for our multicultural society.  Guo Nian Hao!  (Happy New Year!)

Sources:  1  Trove Newspapers and Wikipedia; 2  Waranga Chronicle 23.1.1879 (with a heads up to Alan McLean)