By Albert Wong
Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is the most important traditional festival celebrated by the Chinese. In this Year of the Snake, more than 200 celebrated the lunar New Year at Holy Family Church in Como on February 10.
The evening program started with a thanksgiving Mass that included ancestral veneration and concluded with children and single adults receiving blessings and red envelopes from Archbishop Emeritus Barry Hickey.
A feast enhanced by a series of Chinese traditional performances followed, including a lion dance led by Mr John Hsu and traditional musical performance led by Mr Chen Zhi.
A special feature of this year’s celebration was the Cheongsam contest (Cheongsam is also known as a mandarin gown – a one-piece Chinese dress for women).
The organising committee was honoured to have Sr Philomena Burrell PBVM from the Maranatha Centre as judge to select the Cheongsam Queen with the crown going to Lin Fan in a red Cheongsam.
The night ended with a raffle. Winners were drawn by Fr Andrew Zhang, chaplain to Perth’s Chinese Catholic Community, who has ministered in Perth for almost three months.
Organisers wanted to thank Archbishop Hickey for his time and effort as principal celebrant of the Chinese New Year Thanksgiving Mass and also said they were honoured to have Fr Aloysius Leong from Holy Family Church, Fr Alfonso Savickis from St Brigid’s Church, Leederville and Fr Bruno Carrera from the Focolare Movement present.