Over the weekend, Melbourne celebrates the coming of the Year of the Pig (also known as the Year of the Boar) in a two-day festival at Melbourne's Chinatown centred on Little Bourke St.

The 2007 festival begins on Chinese New Year Eve (February 17) at 2pm and continues through the Chinese New Year.

Firecrackers and dancing lions will herald the arrival of the new year, and the Milennium Dragon will be awakened to parade through the streets of Melbourne's Chinatown.

The festival features traditional and contemporary Chinese cultural activities, festivities, dances, Chinese Opera and singing, karaoke competition, numerous stalls of culinary delights, arts and crafts, Chinese chess competitions, lion dances with fireworks, dragon parades, calligraphy and children's events.

Sydney's Chinese New Year Festival in Pictures