Eid and Nowruz
Belinda WILSON (Narre Warren North) (10:48): It is always a pleasure to recognise the importance of Eid and Nowruz festivals that have recently been celebrated across my electorate of Narre Warren North and also the whole of the state of Victoria. Eid symbolises the end of Ramadan and Nowruz celebrates the new day and the arrival of spring, marking the beginnings of the new year for our diverse Afghanistan community. Recently I had the pleasure of celebrating Nowruz festival with the Bakhtar Community Organisation at their incredible event at the Hallam reserve in my electorate. The event was filled with music, dancing, food, art and fashion, and it was also joined by lots of community members, including the member for Narre Warren South. It was an amazing opportunity to showcase what our community has to offer, and I thank the Bakhtar Organisation for having me.
I also attended the Victorian Afghan Associations Network’s Nowruz festival in Dandenong Park, which was equally as vibrant and joyful and had over 15,000 people in attendance. I want to express my appreciation to Bassir, to Miriam and to all the team at the Bakhtar Organisation and to Hafiz, Nizar and all the dedicated team at the VAAN organisation for putting on these incredible events. Their hard work brought together communities to celebrate in a meaningful way, and I thank them for all the hard work that they do. I also wish to extend my thanks to all their staff, to my staff member Moz and his wife Rukhsana who hosted my family and my office for an amazing Eid dinner at his house.