Chinese New Year Down Under

Chinese New Year is being celebrated around the world and we're celebrating this year in Melbourne, Australia. It falls on January 26 this year which just happens to be Australia Day (Australia's Fourth of July).

There's a healthy Chinese population here in Melbourne, perhaps even more than there is in Sydney, but probably just less diluted than in Sydney. In any case, the organizers didn't hold back on any of the celebrations as a full slate of activities and day of partying shut down most of the streets in and around Chinatown.

There were at least a half dozen Lion Dance troupes making their way through Chinatown helping the merchants beckon in the new year with prosperity and good luck. Many shopkeepers simply hung out some lettuce in their entryway and waited for the lions to show up.

What's a Chinese New Year parade without a dragon?

Where there are Lion Dancers there are usually firecrackers and they weren't shy about lighting them up. Many of the merchants had strings, twenty feet long, strung out waiting for the lions.

Welcome Year of the OX.

Yes, if you were born in 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, or 2009, you're an OX.

People born in the Year of the Ox are patient, speak little, and inspire confidence in others. They tend, however, to be eccentric, and bigoted, and they anger easily. They have fierce tempers and although they speak little, when they do they are quite eloquent. Ox people are mentally and physically alert. Generally easy-going, they can be remarkably stubborn, and they hate to fail or be opposed. They are most compatible with Snake, Rooster, and Rat people.

Find out more about those born in OX years, and any other year for that matter by clicking OX

Melbourne time in the year of the OX: