How we celebrate the festive season in Wyndham City

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the most common ancestries in the Point Cook region are English, Australian-born, Chinese, and Indian. This means that from November onwards the region is flat out celebrating Diwali, Christmas and Chinese New Year respectively. This week we look at the traditions of all three and some of the ways that we can encourage good luck for the year ahead.

Diwali, the Festival of Light

Diwali is the most important festival in the Hindu calendar. In India, it marks the end of the summer and monsoon rains and the start of cooler weather, while in Australia it occurs in November, at the start of summer.

Diwali follows the Hindu lunar calendar, so the date changes annually, but it always takes place on a moonless night in October or November. The celebrations last for five days, and it’s a time to meet with friends, tidy the house, buy new clothes, exchange gifts and enjoy good food. It is also considered an auspicious time to launch a new business venture, as well as a celebration of friends, family and home.

Although there are regional differences, Diwali represents the triumph of good over evil and lightness over dark. The festival is linked to the legend of Lord Rama who was deprived of his kingdom and sent into exile for 14 years. The celebrations last for five days, with the third day being the main event – a time for lanterns, fireworks, shared meals and lots of Indian sweets.

Christmas celebrations

In Australia, of course, Christmas is the most widely recognised festive celebration of the year, but its origins in the northern hemisphere mean that it’s often slightly different here – with a lot more fake snow. While some families opt for the full turkey, plum pudding and all the trimmings, others prefer to serve this hearty food at Christmas in July events and enjoy a more summery feast of seafood, barbecued meat, salads and traditional pavlova on December 25th.

European-Australian families will have their own food traditions at Christmas, from German stollen to Italian panettone, but for everyone, a cricket match and a swim at the beach are southern hemispheres Christmas Day traditions.

Lunar New Year

This is now a mainstream tradition, with Sydney’s city-wide celebrations the largest outside of China. Melbourne’s Chinatown is equally dedicated to putting on a wonderful show, with lamps and richly decorated shop fronts. Here in Australia, the Chinese New Year is more commonly referred to as Lunar New Year, to mark the fact that it represents other Asian communities as well as China.

Lunar New Year begins on the final day of the last month of the Chinese Lunar calendar and will be on February 1 in 2022. Lion dances are always a wonderful spectacle (be sure to pat the lion’s head for good luck) and there is a tradition of fireworks and loud drums to scare away bad spirits. As with both Christmas and Diwali, cleaning and decorating the house and giving gifts, including red packets of money, are common. Food traditions include eating fish and dumplings, and it’s considered bad luck to wear black, sweep the floor (as you’re sweeping out bad luck) or speak negatively or argue at this time.

Thinking of selling in the new year?

Whatever your background, these vibrant annual events are a great reason to get together with family, friends and neighbours, celebrate, feast and bring in luck and good fortune for the year ahead. However you and your family celebrate, we wish you a wonderful festive season ahead.

Get in touch with us if you are feeling lucky and looking to mark the new year with a move, and we’ll be on hand to help.