Page 3999 - Week 11 - Thursday, 26 September 2019
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many more people who could not make it here today, that the Canberra Moon Festival has become such a successful event which brings life to our city.
The Canberra Moon Festival is the first multi-Asian cultural festival event held in Canberra. Canberra Moon Festival is an annual event which celebrates the traditional mid-autumn festival, a period in the lunar calendar and in many Asian cultures which celebrates harvest and reunion. Traditionally, the mid-autumn festival is celebrated through outdoor gatherings among friends and family, who eat mooncakes and watch the moon, which is considered to be a symbol of harmony and unity.
The Canberra Moon Festival takes these traditional celebrations of the mid-autumn festival and combines them into a three-day event held in the heart of the city that the whole community can come and enjoy. This year the Canberra Moon Festival featured over 20 local food, product and carnival vendors, as well as multicultural programs and performances from over six local community organisations.
I had the privilege of attending the Canberra Moon Festival earlier this month, to meet Suzana and her team, and I can truly attest to how fantastic the festival was. The vibrancy, atmosphere and sense of community were unmistakable. It was warming to see the diversity of people attending the festival—those who celebrate the mid-autumn festival and those who do not. It was a truly inclusive and uplifting atmosphere. I was kindly gifted some hand-crafted mooncakes, which were very delicious.
The event was so great that I returned the next day with my family so that they could experience the event as well. It was lovely to see so many other Canberra families doing the same thing.
One of the greatest things about the Canberra Moon Festival is the sense of community and inclusion that it brings to our city. As I have mentioned before, I am deeply passionate about ensuring that our community is welcoming and inclusive to people of all backgrounds. Canberra Moon Festival is an event which truly brings people from all communities together in celebration. The 2019 theme was “One community, one world, one big family”, which truly captures the spirit of Canberra Moon Festival and its aim of creating a welcoming environment for all Canberrans.
The Canberra Moon Festival is just one of the great initiatives that Fun Canberra organises to increase cultural connection and celebration in our city. Fun Canberra is a not-for-profit organisation which acts as an Asian multicultural community hub, run by Canberra locals. Fun Canberra works on various cultural-related projects and programs to expose different cultures to Canberra in a fun and attractive way, guided by the value that many conflicts and misunderstandings can be avoided by understanding cultural diversity through education and communication. The work that Fun Canberra is doing to champion cultural understanding in our community is incredible, and I wish to acknowledge their great and ongoing contribution to our city.
In conclusion, as members of this Assembly are aware, Canberra has a diverse and vibrant multicultural community. The Canberra Moon Festival, and further work that Fun Canberra continue to do in our city to champion multicultural understanding, is
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