How+does+Melbourne+celebrate+its+cultural+diversity+through+festivals?

Melbourne is a very multicultural city **offering a variety of cultural festivals. Many of the festivals show the city's cultural diversity differently. Some put on magic shows, others put on parades, dances and singing performances. People have the opportunity to experience different cultures within these festivals. Greece, India and China are the countries that I will be focusing on. I chose these countries because they all have a magnificent cultural difference from each other.**


 * __The Greek Antipodes Festival__**

====Melbourne is the largest Greek-speaking city outside of Greece, with over 400,000 Greek people living here. That is why Greek celebrations play a huge role in Melbourne's festivals.The Antipodes festival first started in 1987 on March the 6th, on Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, and ended in October. The festival comprises of several attractions over the course of six months. It is celebrated through art, film, theater, social, sporting and trade events. However, the signature event is the Lonsdale street Glendi, which is a street event where people come to see, hear and taste the tradition, history and culture of Greek life. The Antipodes Festival brings people of all ages together to celebrate the heritage and culture of the Greek community. This festival transforms Melbourne's CBD into a crowded city, where everyone can enjoy Greek food and entertainment such as amusement rides, music, singing, dancing and even fashion parades. This festival is one of Australia's oldest and is currently one of Australia's largest ethnic festivals with over 40,000 people attending each year. ====



====The celebration of Chinese New Year is of great importance to the Chinese-Australian community. It takes place around Little Bourke Street in Chinatown. This festival attracts an overflow of tourists every year from all around the world and is a major festival showing the multicultural aspect of Australia. ==== ====Chinese New Year is a celebration marked as the first day of the New Year. The Chinese say that 'all creations are reborn on New Year’s day’. It is a celebration of change; out with the old and in with the new. Unlike other countries, Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year, but it always falls in either January or February. This is because it is based on the lunar and solar movements. ====

====For the Chinese, there are certain rules to be followed. Before New Year’s Eve you have to complete all the following: clean the entire home to get rid of all the things to do with the old year, put away all brooms and brushes, pay all debts, and resolve differences with family members. You also have to buy the following: red money envelopes, oranges or tangerines, circular candy tray, flowers, and a new set of clothes and shoes for children. As the Chinese believe the colour red is sacred, you would find the whole of Chinatown flooded with this colour. People wear red and give out red envelopes of money which are supposed to bring good luck. The king of luck wears bright traditional garments, while walking through the streets giving out free fortune cookies and chocolate gold coins. ====

This Festivals run for 15 days straight, with many events on each day.
====**Day 1. **The first day is the welcoming of the unknown people of the heavens and earth, officially starting at midnight. On this day it is bad luck to clean, use knifes or light fires and consume meat. Today is the time for families to visit their oldest relatives, such as parents, grandparents or great-grandparents. ==== ====**Day 2. **Today is the day for married daughters to visit their birth parents, as traditionally daughters who are married may not have the opportunity to visit their parents frequently. Also, the Chinese pray to their ancestors as well as the gods. They are extra kind to dogs and feed them well as it is believed that the second day is the birthday of all dogs. Business people hold a praying group so that they are blessed with good luck for their businesses for the following year. ====

**Day 4. **Shopping day in China Town.
====**Day 5. **On the morning of this day, people are expected to eat dumplings. This day is also the birthday of the Chinese god of wealth. They also do fireworks, to grab Guan Yu's (a good luck person from above) to send good luck to all. ====

**Day 6. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Shopping day in China Town.
====**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 7. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today is the day where everyone grows one year older and raw fish salad is eaten to wish upon. For Buddhists, it is the day to avoid ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> meat.
====**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 8. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today is another family dinner, to celebrate the eve of the birth of Jade emperor. However, everyone should be back at work by this day. All businesses stop celebrating. ==== ====**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 9. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The ninth day is where all pray to the Jade Emperor of heaven. This day is traditionally Jades' birthday. ====

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 12. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Friends and family are invited for dinners.
====**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 13. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Everyone becomes a vegetarian for this day to clean out their stomachs from eating lots over the past two weeks. This day is also dedicated to the God of War. He was considered the best Chinese general in history, as he won over 100 battles. ====

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 14. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Shopping day in China Town.
====**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 15. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The fifteenth day is the last day of celebrating Chinese New Year. Rice dumplings are eaten on this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide spirits home. A lantern festival is held at midnight, where people hold lit lanterns while walking the streets of Chinatown. This is also a day like Valentines Day, but only a different version. Single women write their mobile number on mandarins and put them somewhere for single men to eat. This is suppose to bring the two together.====

====Another way that Melbourne celebrates Chinese New Year is the Chinese Luncheon. This is a celebration created by local people at Ku Ming restaurant on Little Collins St, Chinatown. People come to enjoy delicious traditional Chinese cuisine. Melbourne's people love this festival - they enjoy celebrating and experiencing Chinese culture for a day or two.====

====The Diwali Indian Festival of Light is one of India's most special festivals in Melbourne's CBD. It is also celebrated in parts of South Asia as well. It is held on the 10th of October every year at Federation Square on the corner of Swanston and Flinders Street in Melbourne. It is one of India's largest annual events and is traditionally celebrated within 5 days, with the last being the sunset fireworks. That is why it is given the name ' Festival of Light'. The last day is called 'Bhai Doog' - the time to thank and worship brother-sister relationships. Crackers, family dinners and gatherings, exchanges of gifts, sweets, Bollywood dancing, crafting, Indian cuisine, music, magic shows and henna all make this festival so spectacular. People also offer prayers and thank all the gods and goddesses.====

====It is celebrated with much enthusiasm with homes filled with lit lamps and candles, new clothes worn by people who celebrate it and exchanging sweets for gifts within the family and friends. Australia is such a multicultural country with a great population of over 250,000 Indians. That is why this festival plays a big roll in Melbourne's celebrations. It is a chance for the Indians to show and celebrate their culture and heritage, uniting the Indian population and demonstrating the Indian culture to Australians. Mr Brumby, who is the premier of Victoria, once said: "Diwali was, and is, an important occasion for the Indian community and a great example of how Victoria's multicultural community come together".====

====Thai Culture and Food Festival is held at Federation Square every rear on the 22nd of March. It is to celebrate the Thai cuisine and culture, and to demonstrate to Australians and other races what Thailand is all about. It welcomes all ages and is a free and family event. This colourful festival features many Thai restaurants, dances, shows, Thai kickboxing, culture shows, Buddhist ceremonies, raffles, cooking demonstrations, beauty pageants, stalls, Thai films, traditional Thai products and handicrafts and many more. All selling items are affordable and cheap. This festival is opened by an opening ceremony and a drum parade. In 2010 it attracted 65,000 people to Federation Square.====

====This festival is very significant to Australia. It was created in 2002 by the Aboriginal people to acknowledge the Aborigines and bring all Australians together to celebrate the indigenous Australian culture. It is celebrated through music, performances, workshops, art, information stalls, and exchanging stories between Aborginal and non-Aboriginal people. There are many famous Aboriginal musicians and bands who come to perform. The Treasury Garden comes alive with colour, with all kinds of Aboriginal art. The art aspect of this festival is one of the many things that people look forward to. They love seeing and buying Aboriginal art as it is very artistic and different to any kind of common art. It is held at Treasury Gardens, Wellington Parade East Melbourne (lower end of Melbourne's CBD) and starts at 1.00 p.m., ending at 7.00 p.m. That is seven hours straight of Aboriginal life style. This festival is a drug and alcohol free event.====