The Year of the Rabbit Chinese New Year celebration held at Oakville Town Hall

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The Oakville Lunar New Year Celebration hosted by Oakville town Councillor Dr. Scott Xie was successfully held at Town Hall on January 29th, the 8th day of the first month of the lunar calendar. Hundreds of citizens braved the snowy weather to participate enthusiastically.

Canadian Federal Minister of National Defence Anita Anand, Federal Member of Parliament Pam Damoff, Oakville Mayor Rob Burton, and six Oakville town councillors were on hand to send their Chinese New Year wishes to citizens and celebrate the Chinese New Year with them.

The gala was hosted by Scott Xie, Oakville's first Chinese-Canadian councillor, who first greeted everyone with a bilingual New Year's greeting, saying he was very happy to have so many friends at Oakville Town Hall, and introduced the guests separately, welcoming them all to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The gala performance kicked off with a traditional lion dance with drums and gongs, where MP Anita Anand, MP Pam Damoff, Mayor Rob Burton and Councillor Scott Xie performed the "eye-dotting" ceremony of the lion dance. The lion dance is meant to awaken the lions and give them the ability to spread happiness and good fortune, meaning prosperity and prosperity.

In the traditional "green picking" session that followed, Mayor Rob Burton and council members Janet Haslett-Theall, Peter Longo, Marc Grant, Tom Adams and Scott Xie, holding lettuce (a play on the word "wealth"), tossed the "green" (lettuce) to the audience after the lion had picked it, signifying the spread of wealth to thousands of households.

After the lion dance, Mayor Burton, and MPs Anita Anand and Pam Damoff delivered speeches to all the Chinese New Year celebrants, wishing them a happy and peaceful Year of the Rabbit. Anand also presented a certificate to Scott Xie, thanking him for organizing such a meaningful event for the community.

The gala was followed by nine programs combining East and West, including not only traditional Chinese cultural programs such as the Beijing Opera, Gu-Zheng performance etc but also Indian Bollywood dances.

Three on-site lucky draw sessions increased the participation of the audience and gave the public a traditional blessing during the Chinese New Year festival.

After the gala, people who attended the event said that they were very excited by both the lion dance performance and the diverse cultural elements of the program, including the style of the site's New Year's Eve-filled decorations. It was a great pleasure to spend such a culturally meaningful New Year at Town Hall.

Scott Xie also said that similar community events will be held in the future to enrich the cultural life of citizens and give full play to the positive role of multiculturalism in Canada. He welcomed the active participation of the general public.

The gala is also open to the public who were not able to attend the live broadcast; those who missed the gala can review the entire gala through the live replay link on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scott.xie.3/videos/1225805645010257