Nepalese community looking to make Christmas tradition

By Max Stainkamph

Dec 21, 2022

Ready for Christmas: Some members of Shepparton's Nepalese community, including Bishal Kunwar (left). Photo: Max Stainkamph Photo by Max Stainkamph

Christmas isn’t high on the list of traditional Nepalese holidays, but Shepparton’s Nepalese community is hoping to make a tradition of its own.

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The community will host a Christmas dinner on December 25 in Mooroopna, with activities for children and adults, and Nepali food and dance.

There will also be performances from artists Siddhartha Rai and Pramod Nirwan, the latter of whom flew to Australia from Nepal for the event.

Organiser Bishal Kunwar said while the Australian tradition of Christmas was to sit around with your family, he wanted to sit around with as many families as he could.

“We want to celebrate as a big family and get all the Nepalese people in the region to come together,” Mr Kunwar said.

“We’ll have some presents for the children and it’ll be a fun atmosphere.”

Mr Kunwar said the smorgasbord on offer would be a Nepali feast, forgoing the Australian ham and prawns for now.

“We always enjoy traditional Australian food when we go out to eat but we’re going to have a lot of traditional food on Christmas when we’re around our families,” he said.

The Christmas dinner will be held at the Sir Ian McLennan Centre in Mooroopna from 4pm to 10pm. Contact Mr Kunwar on 0402 317 434 or Gyan Lama 0401 397 593.