CENTACARE Moree hosted a Chinese New Year celebration last week.
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Community multicultural officer, Suelyn Pakes, said for the past three years Centacare had celebrated the new year festivities.
“It’s a part of our outreach to the community, so it’s basically all about bringing the community together and showing them our services,” she said.
Moree TAFE students, Centacare Moree and Narrabri clients and community members gathered for a feast.
“The Chinese New Year is all about the end of harvest for farming families. They come together and celebrate the year that was, let go of the bad and hope for a better year,” Ms Pakes said.
There was a traditional nian gao cake, which is a sweet and sticky cake. “We eat the cake because we want to have all things sweet in our lives and we want to make sure all things said are good things and not sticky things,” she said.
The group also celebrated the tossing of a yee sang salad.
“The dish is a salad full of fruit, veggies and salmon and we toss the salad to toss away all the bad things and welcome all of the good things,” she said.
There were traditional symbols such as the colour red, the dragon and firecrackers to scare away all of the bad spirits.
“We also had some traditional Chinese New Year music playing while we all feasted and got to know each other better,” Ms Pakes said.
Centacare will host similar events during the year. If you would like to know more call the office on 6750 8500.