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Chinese New Year Lion Dance
Title:
Chinese New Year Lion Dance
NFSA ID
11067
Year
1937
Courtesy
Cinesound Movietone Productions
The lion is one of the most iconic symbols of Lunar New Year festivities.
This Cinesound Newsreel clip, filmed in Sydney in 1937 (Year of the Ox), features a lion dance performance accompanied by drums and percussion and could be the earliest known film of Chinese New Year celebrations in Australia.
The lion dances are a highlight of traditional Chinese New Year celebrations.
The lion, as well as the noise from the fireworks and music, is intended to scare away evil spirits to make way for good luck to come to the community.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.