Cultures celebrated at Benalla’s South Asian new year event

It had been scheduled to take place on the Lake Benalla foreshore, however, the forecast rain saw it moved to the Indoor Recreation Centre — which turned out the be a perfect substitute.

This celebration is based on the traditional new year to many cultures in South Asia including Kerala, Punjab and Assam, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma, and some parts of Southeast Asia including Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

There are various traditions and rituals observed in celebrating festivals in Asia, commonly these are based on the ancient solar calendar and rice harvesting season.

Benalla’s celebrations kicked off at 3pm with two hours of fun and games for the younger attendees.

This included some jumping castles that were there to keep them entertained even once the games had concluded.

Outside in the car park was seven or eight food vans and stalls offering cuisine from across South Asia.

At 7pm a series of dances and performances by different cultural groups began.

They were the highlight of the event for many with a series of performances from locations including Sri Lanka, Nepal and India.

Once they were completed those with enough energy left danced the evening away to a live DJ.

The Ensign’s Simon Ruppert was there to take these photos.