Easter 2014

The thundering of firecrackers, the rumbling of drums, the crashing of gongs and cymbals and the ringing of church bells off in the distance. This is the sound of Easter in Bendigo. From the audience everything looks so easy and amazing and you don't know how much effort goes on behind the scenes unless you are a member or a parent of members. the Bendigo Chinese Association (BCA) starts preparing for next years Easter almost before Easter has finished. It involves long days training, early morning and late nights and months of preparation. It comprises of inviting teams from across the state, planning what we are performing and gathering volunteers and sponsors. This year Easter was just as busy as always.

Every year thousands come to the Gala Parade on Sunday to see Sun Loong weave through the streets of Bendigo. 88 volunteers are needed to carry him but before he can come out, he needs to be woken up. The Awakening of the Dragon is the title given to the event in which we wake up Sun Loong from his year long sleep.

Each year, the awakening of the dragon has something new added to it and the donation dance gets better, with money raised going to Bendigo Health. This year it was an unseen northern lion or Pekingese versus the southern lion, these lions would normally perform separately as they are two different styles. Also, new this year was three new dances by the Plum Blossom dancing team, semi-seniors waist drum dance; the seniors long sleeve dance. Our alumni, members who can’t come to training due to family and work commitments, long fan dance. To close the awakening a string of 100,000 firecrackers is lit, this year we added another string of 100,00 crackers, firstly to ward off bad spirits and the second is to wake Sun Loong.

Prior to the awakening teams have a chance to perform at spring festival, the items that aren't being performed at the awakening with all teams performing lion dances. Hung Gar Yau Shu (HGYS) every year perform a drum dance and it gets better every time, with bigger and more drums being added. The Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne (CYSM) have a lotus dragon dance. They start the performance off dancing with ten lotus flowers that join together with a head and tail added to form a dragon to finish the performance. The BCA Plum Blossom dancing team performed all of our old dances leaving the new ones a surprise for the awakening.

Sunday was the gala parade, Sun Loong being the main attraction. This year we were a few volunteers short, but we still managed to have all our dragons and props out. Before the parade we had an inter-team egg hunt organised CYSM with anyone who wanted to participate. With all the teams having lunch together in the back car park behind our training rooms and all volunteers having lunch in the side car park. A few of us were still tired and sore from the torchlight the night before. We tend to look forward to it, but this year we didn't. None of us wanted to walk down View St and we all were feeling cold. Huddled together to keep warm we discussed the new route, and how View St wasn’t going to be fun for any of us. Looking at Chinese Youth League (CYL) in their warm hoodies with flashing zips, we thought we could go for one of those because they were warm.

During the torchlight, the walk down View St wasn’t as bad as we all thought it would be. It was easy and a short walk back to the Golden Dragon Museum with a really good turnout for the weather, the streets lined with three or four rows of people all trying to watch. Where as for the gala parade it felt harder, we started the walk up Park and Gaol Rd, it was harder to do in the day, because we could see where we were walking. The wait in the QEO car park wasn’t as long as it was for the torchlight too so we weren’t complaining about sore feet like the night before. Before long we were moving down View St, it was difficult to walk slowly down the hill stopping every few metres dancing and posing. Once we started on Pall Mall we felt a little bit of relief, it was almost the home straight, but we felt like we were walking for a long time.

Friday night was the welcome dinner with the visiting teams, Hung Gar Yau Shu Martial Arts School from Melbourne, Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne and the Chinese Youth League of Australia from Sydney as well as all performing team members of the BCA. The dinner is a huge barbeque and games, and a chance to meet new friends and catch up with old ones.

Getting back to the rooms was joy, knowing that it was all over for this year and it went well. Now to start thinking about next year and what we can do differently. We all hope that the parade route goes back to normal next year, just for the guys carrying Sun Loong and pushing the drum carts.

Dancing (Working Title)

This is part of my second short story I am working on for my pop fiction class. Not sure where I am going with it, but I'll work that out as I plan it out some more.

Dancing, spinning across the fresh mown green grass in the rain, it hasn’t rained in months. I almost forgot what spring smelt like, the grass, the flowers, the rain. It was starting to bucket down but I didn’t care, I was happy. Dancing carefree in the wind and the rain, my red and white polka dot dress getting soaked through, my shoes slowly changing from white to brown, mum was going to be mad. Racing home in the pouring rain weaving through the grand Victorian buildings, knowing I was going to be late, my now brown shoes rubbing with every step I take.

Running through the front door, trying to hide from mum and my nanny, well my governess – a mean young lady trying to be someone she wasn’t. I was late, wet and in big trouble. I had escaped my governess in the park and was hiding from her…I hated her. Mum and dad were having important people over and it is my birthday, being the only child of an important dignitary is hard, why do I have to act like I’m better than everyone else, when I just want to be a child.

It had stopped raining, standing on my balcony that overlooked our amazing garden. My favourite spot to play and hide. The sun setting on the horizon, casting a soft orange glow over everything, like the glow of a candle in my room. It was peaceful, relaxing and it helps me sleep.

“Mum, I hate him and he doesn’t love me,” I screamed, “ I’m not going to marry him.”

“Sophia, will you behave? You will marry whoever we tell you to”

“I am behaving, mum but I am not going to marry someone outside of love just so you can have grandchildren,” I shout as I storm out of the room to go and hide in the streets like I did as a child. Running away from my governess Betty, but this time I was running away from mum and the life I didn’t want.

“Sophia! Please come back,” she yells but all I could hear is a faint sound coming from my home. I know they’ll send Betty after me later, she knew all my hiding spots, but not the one I was headed for. My love’s place, I know my father hated his, but we love each other. Henry and I were going to be together.

Let me know what you think, and I'll post the full story when it's done.