Feature: Australia ready for major nationwide Lunar New Year celebrations

Australia is ready to welcome in the Chinese zodiac Year of the Sheep with major celebrations to take place nationwide.

Australia, and especially Sydney, lays claim to staging the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations outside of Asia, and is ready to party again.

The tradition of many multi-cultural communities in Australia joining Chinese and other Asian countries to celebrate the Lunar New Year has grown every year for the past two decades.

It is often said that Australia was built on the "sheep's back" thanks to the 19th century wool industry, which was the bedrock of the young nation's economy and created the wealth for it to grow, and wool remains a major export today.

So the sheep is an important Australian symbol.

But these days, so too is the annual Chinese New Year, the term used in Australia to cover all Asian countries which celebrate the Lunar New Year.

On a government level, it is local councils which organize large public celebration festivals, and there will be more than 80 major events in the City Of Sydney council area alone.

It covers the central area of the city and inner suburbs around two or so kilometers to the east, south and west of the CBD.

It is the most densely populated part of Australia and is also home to the burgeoning Chinatown, which now includes Thaitown and Koreatown precincts.

But events will take place across wider Sydney and in all other state capitals.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott this week wished people a happy Chinese New Year and Australia-China relationship which began in the 1850s gold rushes.

"Today, China is our greatest trading partner, and our largest source of migrants and international students," Abbott told the Australian parliament.

"In every part of our national life, Australians of Chinese ancestry have helped to build our modern nation."

The Chinese/Australian Millennial Project is an Australian- based body of business, commerce and art organizations which fosters mutually beneficial relationships on various levels between the two countries.

Its chief operator Aimee Zheng said the growing ties between the two countries, particularly in the past 10 to 15 years, was feeding into better cultural awareness on both sides.

"There is an increased awareness of the big picture with developments such as the new Free Trade Agreement, changes to working visas for Chinese people in Australia and more," she told Xinhua.

"But that also affects the smaller picture with better cultural awareness between the countries. There are many new Chinese immigrants, and also Chinese students who have come to Australia.

"If you look at Sydney, 6.5 percent of the population is Chinese. More and more young Australians are learning to speak Chinese. So it's no surprise Chinese New Year is such a big thing. "

While Australian Chinese community groups have always celebrated the New Year with feasts and festivals in their homes and in the Chinatowns which exist in every capital city, large celebrations now also take place throughout city suburbs, and rural towns as well.

Traditions such as lion dances are now seen as a cultural norm in a country where around 900,000 people of Chinese ancestry are among the population of 23 million. More than 320,000 of them are China-born, according to the most recent government census figures.

There are also more than 220,000 Vietnamese-born and second generation people in Australia, many of whom celebrate the Lunar New Year.

The major cities of Sydney and Melbourne will stage events for almost two weeks from mid-February, while the other state capitals of Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane and the national capital Canberra will all hold events.

Banquets, day-long festivals and smaller events will also be held for many rural cities and towns as well.

In the smaller state of Victoria, where Melbourne is the capital city, and Australia's second largest, there will be 14 major events, most of them in the city.

They include a New Year countdown with cultural demonstrations in its Chinatown on February 18.

There will also be various markets and festivals featuring performances in suburbs throughout the city, and also in larger rural centers such as Dandenong and Box Hill throughout the latter part of February.

At the half-way point of the traditional celebrations from February 26, Melbourne will stage multi-media and interactive cultural events in its premiere CBD Federation Square public space.

Also on its schedule until March 1 will be is puppetry, dance, a Chinese orchestra, Chinese opera, and even a Chinese chess competition among other Lunar New Year celebrations, including fireworks.

One major centerpiece will be Electric Dragon, a multi-media performance telling the story of a dragon called Fang.

But Sydney, the hub of Australia, will put on the biggest shows.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore presides over the city's major events running for more than two weeks, including the annual Twilight Parade, exhibitions, daily lion dances, set price banquets in dozens of restaurants, dragon boat races and much more.

"Huge crowds will celebrate Chinese New Year in Sydney, with over 75 events on the festival agenda to welcome the Year of the Sheep," the mayor said.

"The Twilight Parade (February 22) is an excellent way we celebrate Sydney's cultural diversity, with local and international communities that observe the Lunar New Year taking part.

"Always the most popular item on the Chinese New Year festival calendar, we expect huge crowds to line the city streets to welcome in the New Year."

It will feature dozens of floats and 3000 performers, including more than 100 performers from Sichuan, Shaanxi and Beijing performing martial arts, acrobatics along with jugglers, puppeteers, dancers and musicians.

The theme is to honor all things sheep, with giant five meter replicas of Australia's famous wool producing Merino breed, lanterns, floats and light projections on city streets and buildings.

"We are (also) delighted to host the Lanterns of the Terracotta Warriors, which are in Australia for the first time," mayor Moore said. "This unique exhibition will encourage even more Sydneysiders to experience the excitement of this year's Chinese New Year festival."

This art installation is made up of plastic replicas of the terracotta warriors and was created by Chinese artist for the Beijing Olympics. Endi