More than 70,000 people have crowded into the firecracker smoke-filled streets of Melbourne's Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year, marking the beginning of the year of the goat - or the sheep.
Officially opening the festivities, Melbourne's Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said Chinese New Year was a time when people from the city's many different cultural backgrounds came together to celebrate. "This is a time of great joy and great excitement in our city, where our Chinese community celebrates with the wider community the beginning of the new year," he said.
He also said it was an opportunity to look back at the contribution the Chinese community has had throughout Melbourne's history.
"That connection between the Chinese community and Melbourne has been here from the very start," he said. "Right from the very beginning of our city our Chinese community have been intimately involved in business, in retail, in finance, in the commercial life of the city of Melbourne." And Chinese New Year celebrations have been a part of the Chinese presence in Melbourne since the beginning, too.
He said the significance of the new year is more about tradition than the significance of which animal the year is attributed to.
"I'm an ox, or a cow, so I think if you're born in that year one thing is I work hard so I stay healthy," he said. "But I don't really follow these animals. I haven't really studied much about the characteristics, so I can't really say much about the goat!"
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