Chinese New Year

There’s a major cultural connection in Nelson this year as the Chinese New Year celebration coincides with the annual International Kai Festival at Founders’ Park and the Whakatu Marae.

Miaolin Li from the New Zealand Chinese Association Nelson Branch said the organisers had kindly offered to feature the Chinese New Year Celebration in the Energy Centre during the International Kai Festival on the Monday of Waitangi weekend.

“New Year in China marks the beginning of spring and is the biggest festival of the year for us – it is like Christmas and Thanksgiving all rolled into one,” she said. “It is the year of the Monkey this year and here in Nelson the celebration is for our people who would otherwise feel homesick, as well as an opportunity to promote Chinese culture and let local people enjoy it together with us.”

There will be a range of Asian food and crafts stalls and cultural performances in the Energy Centre as well as activities with a typical Chinese New Year theme. These include the Dragon Dance, music played on traditional Chinese instruments, sung poems from the children’s Mandarin classes, Gangnam Style dance and ‘Little Apple’ performed by school children, contemporary Korean pop dance, a show of Chinese traditional costumes and Chinese traditional dance from the Blenheim Chinese community.

The Chinese New Year celebration is at the Energy Centre, Founders’ Park on February 8 (Waitangi Monday), starting at 12 noon, doors open 11.30am. The show will be partially repeated at 2pm. Entry is free but raffle tickets are on sale at $4 to cover costs. The winners of the raffle will be drawn at 3pm on the day. Only 666 tickets will be sold and the total value of the raffle will be around $1000. Raffle tickets can be purchased from NMIT Student Centre, Nelson Multicultural Centre Office and Victory Community Centre.

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