With Chinese New Year just around the corner, Darwin’s Chung Wah society is preparing its lion dancers for the city’s annual street blessings to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck to local businesses. It is part of a long-held tradition, dating back more than 120 years in Darwin.
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00:00A new year for Chinese-Australians, and in Darwin, a special ceremony.
00:12With just days to go until China's Lunar New Year, the Chung Wah Society's lion dancers
00:21are busy practising their routine.
00:23Two yawns, second yawn, get up lion boys, and beat, nine long bows to the front.
00:29To mark Chinese New Year, Darwin's lion dancers bless hundreds of businesses around the city
00:35to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits.
00:39The interesting fact with the street blessing is that out of all the shops we do, which
00:43is well over 300 shops, 80% are non-Chinese.
00:47People sort of treat us like local celebrities a little bit.
00:50Like when they see us walking around and they see our yellow shirt, they'll notice us and
00:54point us out.
00:55The history of Chinese lion dancing dates back thousands of years, to the early days
01:00of imperial China, as far back as 200 BC.
01:04Here in Darwin, that tradition has continued, and it's not for the faint-hearted.
01:09It's physically straining, definitely.
01:12A community and cultural exercise steeped in tradition, with dancers trained from primary
01:18school age.
01:19It's really important to remind the younger generation of what the culture is, so it doesn't
01:25get forgotten.
01:26Good luck for the new year, as we see out the year of the dragon.
01:30Goodbye to the dragon, and hello to the year of the snake.