Willoughby City Council (Sydney) is celebrating The Year Of The Dragon as part of its 2024 Lunar New Year celebrations, with a number of experiences on offer including Lunar New Year Comedy Gala.
The Year Of The Dragon Festival will feature a range of multicultural events, tasty treats, cultural experiences, lantern parades, music concerts, markets and more.
Part of the 2024 celebrations is Lunar New Year Comedy Gala, showcasing some of Australia's best comedic acts in a special line-up of Asian Australian excellence.
Audiences can expect to see Diana Nguyen, Annie Louey, Harry Jun, Ting Lim, Kevin Jin, Chris Nguyen and Henry Yan.
Here, comedian Harry Jun has listed the five best things about the Lunar New Year, ahead of his spot in the Lunar New Year Comedy Gala. Harry began performing stand-up in 2017, and sold out runs at Sydney Comedy Festival in 2022 and 2023, as well as picking up the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Moosehead Award Grant for 2024.
One
The number one best thing about the Lunar New Year is that every year is different. In Sydney, Australia, you get fireworks every year. For the Lunar New Year, we've got a different animal that represents each year. There’s 12 of them. And this year’s animal is the dragon. The cool thing about the dragon is that it's the only mythical animal in the zodiac. You’ve got rats, you’ve got tigers. But a dragon? Never seen one in real life. And we've got a different view of dragons compared to Western culture. In Western culture, they're pretty scary. The dragons in 'The Hobbit', 'Game Of Thrones' and St. George bank are very, very scary. But dragons in East Asian culture, they're good. In Korea, we believe they represent good fortune and success because they are ensuring rain and water for our crops. They're very good for our wellbeing. This year, I'm hoping that we get a whole year of success and good luck.Two
Family gatherings. You go back to your family and you get to be a kid again. Everyone is cooking for you! Your family members ask you if you're married yet and you say 'no'. They ask you if you're earning enough money and you say 'no'. Then once you reveal that you're not that rich, they give you money. How cool is that? In Korea, we call it Sebaet Don which is a New Year ritual. In other cultures, you get a red packet with cash in it. In a cashless society, that's liquid gold. We share food. In Korean culture, we’ve got this thing called Tteokguk Dasco which is like a rice cake soup. We also have Songpyeon (rice cakes). The funny thing about Tteokguk is some people in your family will refuse to eat it because they think it’ll make you a year older.Three
That brings me to the next best thing – the food. You’ve got your mooncakes, all kinds of freshly made food. You get to eat leftovers the next day too. These rice cakes that Koreans eat every year, Tteokguk and Songpyeon, it's cool because in Australia being so multicultural, you can just go down to the shops and buy this stuff. Like you can go to any Korean grocer and you'll probably find a packet of them.Four
Money. Before a certain age, Koreans get free money every year which is pretty sick. But when you get to my age, you’re expected to give money to younger people. The trick is, if you're not married yet, technically, you're not really at the age where you can provide money for people younger than you. So, you can still rake it in. I reckon if you're a freshly married Asian person, just keep that hidden for a couple of years. You might be able to grift your way through some red packets for a couple years.Five
The Lunar Calendar. People always wonder, why is the day always different? Why doesn't it stay on the same day? It's because, as Asians, we follow the Lunar Calendar, which means we're not following the cycle of the sun. It's a cycle of the moon that changes every year. The best thing about that is you get to celebrate New Year twice. You get two birthdays – technically, my mum has a Lunar Calendar birthday and then the Gregorian Calendar birthday. She likes to revel in it. She likes to say: “Oh, you’ve got to give me two birthday gifts”. But to me, that just tells me that instead of being 62, she's 124.The Lunar New Year Comedy Gala is on at The Concourse Concert Hall (Chatswood) on 17 February. Chatswood Year Of The Dragon Festival is on from 1-25 February.
