Five Minutes With: Chinese Festivities Group Chair Yvonne Ng

Could you tell us a bit more about Chinese Lunar New Year, and why it’s such a big celebration? 

Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated differently every year, depending on when the Lunar Moon falls - this is why the celebrations this year are actually at the end of February, instead of the beginning of the month, or the end of January.

We have a few different things lined up for the day, which are quite different from what we’ve done in the past. For example, we have an eye-dotting ceremony, which is basically the awakening of our new dragon, which represents Newcastle. We’ve asked a few dignitaries of Newcastle to come and have the honor of opening and awakening the eyes of the dragon. Once the ceremony is done, there’ll be firecrackers to kickstart the Newcastle Chinese New Year parade.

Can you tell us a bit more about the eye dotting ceremony?

The eye dotting ceremony is very traditional in Hong Kong and China. It represents the awakening of a sacred animal, and that obviously brings good luck, wisdom and the start of the new year. It also brings a lot of prosperity to new businesses - it’s like all-round new beginnings.

What are your top three things to do to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year?

Usually one of the things that we do to celebrate is that we like to all sit down as a huge family and have a very filling meal. They’d consist of everything that grandma can make, or grandad can make, and everybody in the family contributes to the meal too. It’s just a nice feeling of having the family all sitting together, celebrating together. And it isn’t just one day either - it consists of a few days together!

Good fortunes and new beginnings is the second way we celebrate. We like to decorate our houses and we also have a sign up on the front door that a lot of Chinese families put up for health and wealth. It says that we’re welcoming some happiness and welcoming some new beginnings.

We’re very traditional in how we celebrate, as in, we believe in superstitious ways and we try to work around that. The main thing to me is that we try to teach the next generation. Obviously my parents taught me how important Chinese Lunar New Year is to us as a culture, especially being in a different country. We’d never get the opportunity to go back to Hong Kong to celebrate but it’s nice for my parents and all the local Chinese residents here to have that kind of atmosphere and to keep it really traditional.

2026 is the Year of the Horse – what does this mean for the year ahead?

The horse symbolises energy, confidence, freedom and movement forward. In Chinese culture, the horse represents enthusiasm, hard work and a strong sense of community. It encourages positivity, progress, and coming together to celebrate new beginnings.

The Chinese Lunar New Year festivities start and end at Stowell Street which is home to lots of great Chinese restaurants. Where would you recommend people book a table at?

I personally would recommend Little Asia, if you like something a bit different. It specialises in hot pot and Korean barbeque in a buffet style restaurant. You go in, pay a set price, and then go up to the buffet and pick the food that you’d want, and then sit down. You’d have a hot pot filled with boiling soup to place the food inside. There’s the Korean barbeque, where you can put food onto the hot plate.

The second one I’d recommend is probably Sky Chinese Restaurant. It does a lot of traditional dim sum and actually caters for a lot of Chinese weddings and celebrations. Again, they do a lot of traditional and authentic Chinese food.

Another restaurant that I'drecommend is King Neptune. They’ve been on Stowell Street for many, many years and they’ve got a really good reputation. They’re consistent and they’ll have a lot of regulars! But to be fair, all the restaurants in Chinatown are very good.

All I would suggest, if you are wanting to book in at any of the restaurants, is to book early. If you’re booking at the primetime of when the event starts, you’ll also need to look for other routes to get to the restaurants. So instead of trying to go through the arch to Chinatown – which will be closed off – walk around the west walls and come through Bath Lane.

If you could describe Chinese Lunar New Year in Newcastle in three words, how would you describe it? 

Bright, vibrant, and fun!

So there you have it! You're all ready to join in with the Chinese Lunar New Year, and ring in the Year of the Horse.

Chinese Lunar New Year takes place on Sunday 22^nd February. Find out everything you need to know about the event here. 

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