China is a vast country, home to numerous ethnic groups and fascinating, diverse customs. Over time, places have formed their own unique annual customs. Including their own take on the annual Spring Festival.
- Post Spring Festival couplets
Posting Spring Festival couplets on New Year’s Eve is one of the most famous customs in China.
In Yunnan, the Bai people create different patterns for their couplets, cut out of red paper. On the night of New Year’s Eve, families come together to enjoy singing "Happy New Year Songs（祝年歌）" together, and post "Song Couplets" on the gates and doors of their houses, on production tools, flowers and trees inside and outside courtyards.
The songs performed are focused on expressing the meaning of couplets, as a way of setting out the expectations for the new year ahead.
- Spread pine needles and buy daffodils
Said to have originated from the worship of pine trees by China’s Li people, the laying of pine needles is also a distinctive annual custom in Yunnan during the Spring Festival.
Typically, the needles are arranged across the living room of a home on New Year’s Eve, to form a kind of dining table. Then the whole family joins together to enjoy a meal together.
The pine tree is evergreen in all seasons and the laying of pine needles symbolises safety and happiness for the family throughout the new year.
According to the custom, the floor of the house must not be swept for a period of time for fear of removing the ‘luck.’ Spreading the pine needles is also seen as having an effect on ‘keeping wealth.’
As well as the pine needles, daffodils are also used to decorate houses. They bloom just once a year, during the Chinese New Year, and the flowers fill home with fresh, fragrant and enchanting aromas.
- Eat long vegetables
For the Kunming people, long vegetables play a big role in new year meals. Normally they are vegetables that are leftover from New Year’s Eve dishes and boiled in a big post. They are usually eaten until the 15th of the first lunar month.
Long vegetables must not be chopped with a knife and they must be cooked one by one.
For example, garlic sprouts, green vegetables and so on must be cooked alone. The idea also developed into a special New Year vegetable pot, which contains pork bones, crispy meat, garlic sprouts, and green vegetables. You just need to choose your favourite ingredients!
- Stay up late and await the New Year
New Year’s Eve is a very special occasion for families to come together to witness the start of the fresh year ahead. They stay up late in a tradition known as Shou Sui.
- Eat Er'kuai on Chinese New Year's Day
Kunming people are expected to eat fried Er'kuai during the New Year, a unique kind of Chinese rice cakes which are often made at home.
The process of creating the cakes is quite complex, so normally one family will make them and distribute them to their friends and relatives.
Lunar New Year's Er'kuai is fried with bacon, pickled winter vegetables, green peas and sweet soy sauce. The oil is fragrant and delicious. Er’kuai is both a perfect side dish and a staple food.
- Flip the sugar cane
To mark the first day of the Luna New Year, in some parts of Yunnan, the first thing that people do in in the morning is ‘flipping.’
This comes after placing a long piece of sugar cane behind a door on New Year’s Eve and keeping the door closed until the early morning of the big day. It then marks a ‘turn over’- a kind of change of fortune.
- Carrying water
On the first day of the new year, girls from the Buyi community rush to rivers to fetch water. Whoever gets the water first is seen as being the most diligent and happiest person, as part of the traditional customs marking heralding a prosperous new year.
- Wear new clothes
When Spring Festival arrives, it’s a chance to take on a fresh look. In Eshan County, Yi families dress up in new clothes, symbolising the period of renewal. Each of the garments are unique, personally customised for each wearer. Children from the Yi also try their hand at creating new clothes as part of the New Year.
- Climbing to pray for blessing
On the first day of the New Year this year, residents of Chuxiong city took part in climbing to welcome the arrival of the New Year. Through combining prayers, they see this as bringing them new opportunities in their lives and careers.
Spring Festival customs focus on gatherings, remembering ancestors and looking forward to a beautiful year ahead. But there also lots of distinctive characteristics to explore and enjoy in different places.
