The Grand Finale
The last segment of the parade was put on by the Bendigo Chinese Association:
This was in my opinion the best part of the parade. The association had more dragons and music than the rest of the parade combined:
The people running with these dragons had to be very tired by the end of the parade:
As you can see many of the Bendigo Chinese Association’s members do not look Chinese. Since the Chinese came to Bendigo during the gold rush in the 1860’s they have been fully integrated into Australian society including through marriage. I had a guy at work tell me that the Bendigo Chinese are actually more Australian than most Australians since they have lived in the country for so long:
They also had a number of these people wearing Chinese masks marching in the parade as well:
They also had people like these guys pictured in white below that set off firecrackers as the dragons marched by:
Then finally the world’s longest imperial Chinese dragon, Sun Loong, made it’s appearance as the last event in the parade:
I can’t really convey in pictures how long this dragon is, but roughly 150 people are needed to move this dragon:
Here is Sun Loong coming right for me:
And there it goes by me:
Then finally, and it did take a while, the tail of the dragon passes by thus ending the parade:
All in all an outstanding parade and a great day spent in Bendigo. The Easter Parade is actually part of the larger Bendigo Easter Festival that went on for the past four days. It is all very well done and good fun, plus Bendigo is just a good place to visit at anytime of the year because like I said before it is one of my favorite cities in all of Australia due to the cultural and historical aspects of the town. If you are in Victoria during this time next year I highly recommend attending the festival, I know the wife and I will be back.
Prior Posting: The Parade Continues
