The sound of bright red firecrackers exploding in the street has long been a symbol of Lunar New Year celebrations, but this year Chinese-Australian business leaders are calling for them to be scrapped out of respect for the .
In the place of crackers, the national Chinese Precinct Chamber of Commerce will be producing a video of firecrackers going off for people to download and play on their phone during the 25 January celebrations.
The call follows heated debate over whether the iconic Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks should have gone ahead, with many believing the decision to continue with the display during the bushfire crisis was insensitive.
The chamber’s president Wayne Tseng has also called for organisations hosting Lunar New Year events to donate the money they would have spent on firecrackers to volunteer firefighting services and .
An image urging people to donated to the Rural Fire Service instead of using firecrackers produced by the Chinese Precinct Chamber of Commerce. Source: Chinese Precinct Chamber of Commerce
“It’s quite overwhelming that the Australian bushfires have resulted in a lot of hurt and loss of property and life across all communities and I think it’s similar to the New Year’s Eve fireworks where people were calling out to avoid them,” Mr Tseng said.
“Firecrackers in effect attract much more fire hazard than fireworks … the last thing we want to do is introduce more fire risk, particularly in the lead up to the next few weeks which will have more extreme weather.”
Across Australia, approximately 1.2 million Chinese people are expected to celebrate the occasion, with many attending public events, and Mr Tseng said each event would typically have to pay between $300 and $800 to put on firecrackers.
He's called for revellers to direct that money towards those in need this year.
Lokman Leong, leader of the Chinese Youth League Lion and Dragon Dance team, said firecrackers were a significant part of Chinese tradition but he understood why the use would be restricted this year.
“It [firecrackers] is quite the spectacle and it does give the performance energy,” Mr Leong said.
“Although it’s fun, if it’s limited or restricted this season I am willing to support it … for me, health and environmental safety is more important.”
Lokman Leung with a dragon dancing costume. Source: Supplied
In traditional Chinese culture, firecrackers are believed to scare away evil spirits.
Despite supporting the ban in principle, Mr Leong did not believe the mobile video would create a similar atmosphere to the real thing.
“The difference between actually hearing and seeing the firecrackers in person compared to an audio recording is a lot different … it’s sort of like listening to live music compared to listening to music through speakers,” he said.
Mr Tseng, however, was confident the video would catch on.
“Get the phones out and play the firecrackers, that way you don’t lose that kind of atmosphere and at the same time you are able to demonstrate some degree of solidarity with the rest of the community affected by the fires,” he said.
In Lunar New Year promotional images shared by the Chinese Precinct Chamber of Commerce, which coordinates a website linking to events across the country, firecrackers will also be replaced with bundles of chilli, corn, apples and cherries to symbolise “recovery and abundance”.
“They symbolise harvest and recovery, and that is really what we want to promote,” Mr Tseng said.
The date of the Lunar New Year varies each from late January to late February, with the celebration falling on the first new moon of the new year.
The holiday is traditionally celebrated by people from Chinese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian backgrounds.
More than through the Sydney fireworks last week after a link to donate to the fund was projected onto the Harbour Bridge pylons.
An online petition calling for the fireworks to be cancelled and the money donated to charities supporting the fire-fighting effort and recovery was signed by more than 284,000 people.
