First Seychelles-China Day celebrations ready to go on 31st January

As China prepares for Spring Festival, Seychelles has announced its first Seychelles-China Day Celebration.  The Chinese Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) is undisputedly the biggest and the most important holiday for people of Chinese origins around the world.

The Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Philippines, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere. It remains a major holiday in China.

Soon Victoria will also join those Nations and groupings celebrating the Chinese New Year. In the coming celebrations in Victoria, the organisers have termed the celebrations ‘from taste to the talent’. Victoria, the Capital of the Seychelles will see from the 31st January up to the 2nd February the colourful Chinese culture including delicious Chinese treats such great performances by two groups coming directly from mainland China.

For the three days of the celebrations Benezet Street in Victoria will be decorated by traditional Chinese lanterns and turned into a mini China Town. Benezet Street is also the home of the Chinese Pagoda, the building that will be at the centre of the Seychelles-China Day Celebrations for this year.

The Ministry of Tourism and Culture says it has chosen the perfect time to hold its first ever Seychelles-China Day Celebrations. Marking the Chinese Spring Festival is Seychelles is set to become an annual artistic stomping ground for both Seychellois and visitors as well as an opportunity for expressing community pride.

Following a meeting with Chinese ambassador for Seychelles, Mr Shi Zhongjun and Members of the local Chinese community to discuss the Seychelles-China Day Celebrations final programme of events in the presence of Alain St.Ange, the Minister for Tourism and Culture and Benjamine Rose, the PS for Culture.

The first Seychelles-China Day Celebrations is a joint effort by the Seychelles Ministry of Tourism and Culture, the Chinese Embassy in Seychelles and the local Chinese Community. The celebrations will to be held from January 31 to February 2 and the final program will be made public during the course of next week. Minister St Ange said he is “thrilled that the ball is set rolling for the first Seychelles-China-Day celebrations”.

The Ministry of Tourism and Culture used that meeting with the Chinese Community of Seychelles to say that with this celebration of the Chinese Culture the five branches making the Seychelles Nation are now recognised and are marked. “We shall from this year onwards mark La Francophonie and a French Day, FetAfrik, the Commonwealth and a British Day, the Seychelles-India Day Celebrations and the Seychelles-China Day Celebrations and finally what we are today as the proud Creole People through our Festival Kreol. We needed to recognise all our key historical branches and be proud of it if we want to continue to be proud of who we are as the proud and unique Seychellois Creole People” Minister St.Ange said.