Tuesday, 30 April 2024

 Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (14:58): The Nepalese New Year 2081 fell in the middle of April this year. To the Nepalese community it is a deeply religious festival with various religious rituals with the hope of blessings for the New Year. In Nepal the community welcome the New Year with colourful decorations in both public and private buildings, street dancing, parades, traditional games, sports, activities, youth pageants and contests. In temples across Nepal people gather for prayers and worship and give food to the gods, while the faithful circle the temples clockwise and ring the bells as they go. So it was a great privilege for me to be invited to open the fourth Nepalese Association of Victoria’s multicultural soccer tournament in Coolaroo. The tournament had 12 different ethnic communities participating. I want to thank and congratulate Prem Raj Upreti, the president, and Alok Paudel, the secretary of the Nepalese Association of Victoria committee, for sharing and promoting inclusiveness and equality in our multicultural communities in Victoria, embodying the spirit of harmony through soccer. Following that, the next day, I and my colleague Evan Mulholland, a member for Northern Metropolitan Region, attended a festival to celebrate the Nepalese New Year in Brunswick organised by the Far Western Nepalese Society of Victoria. I want to say thank you to Naresh Rawal and Deep Chand for organising and sharing the evening. I wish the Nepalese community a very happy and fruitful new year 2081.