Sunday, 23 March 2014

Harmony Day in Australia - 21 March

Harmony Day is celebrated in Australia on the 21st March, and signifies a day of cultural respect for the traditional owners - the Aboriginal people, and all the people that came from the many countries around the world. 

All these different backgrounds, languages, cultures enrich Australia and make it a special country! I recently heard on the radio that in Australia there are 300 languages being spoken, and Harmony Day is a way of celebrating this multiculturalism!

This day has been celebrated around the country for 15 years, from school activities to free council events, festivals and outdoor concerts.

I had never participated in one of these events, even though I had seen them announced previously (I have been here 7 years now) so this year I went to the event being promoted by my City Council, being held on Saturday 22nd.

I wasn't present for the whole show that started at 5pm and ended at 9pm, I only got there at around 7pm, but I enjoyed what I saw.

Who knows next year I could participate by selling Portuguese food in one of the tents! 

The food tents
People sitting on the grass watching the dancing
The Harmony Day show was held in the Amphitheatre behind the council where a stage had been erected to show off folklore dancing of various countries, and the grassed area was surrounded by dozens of tents selling food from Asia, Europe and South America.

A group from the Cook Islands

Ukranian Cossak dancers

The Korean Martial arts group

The Maori Haka Dancing group from New Zealand
The men from the Haka Dancing group from New Zealand delivered an impressive show

Ugandan Drumming Group and dancers

From what I saw, the Maori Haka group was the crowd's favourite and they had won first prize in a Haka competition in Sydney. You can see a video performance here.

Did you attend a performance in your area? If you do not live in Australia, do you have festivals in your country where multiculturalism is celebrated?


  1. Oh, Sami, yes, since a few years we have such a festival, too, on Kohlmarkt :-)
    Lots of yummy food, except at a muslim stand, where I wasn´t served cause I wore a summer-dress. It was summer.
    But the rest: Also yummy and with performances.

    1. Ouch, where is the "togetherness" and "acceptance"?

  2. Gosto muito deste tipo de iniciativas - fomentam a paz entre os povos. E o espectáculo de danças deve ter sido bem interessante. Gostava de ter visto.

    1. Sim foi uma iniciativa interessante e divertida, terei que participar mais frequentemente.

  3. "... a day of cultural respect for the traditional owners - the Aboriginal people"
    Não posso estar mais de acordo com a iniciativa!

  4. Goodness this one slipped by me Sami :) looks like a lot of fun too.. Let me know if you are serving Portuguese food next year and I'll be there for sure :)

    1. Will do Grace, there is a group of us quite interested in showing off our wonderful Portuguese food.

  5. Our little town does not have enough people to hold a big celebration - the school had a dress from your culture day. Gosh I would have enjoyed all the dancing - it looked wonderful. It must have been hard to decide what food to sample.

  6. There weren't that many food stalls there unfortunately, probably about 7 or 8, but we chose a Prawn rice from the Thai stand and for dessert we had Baklava from the Turkish stand.

