A special weekend in China...

Gordon Dumoulin
Feb 4, 2023
1 min read

𝘈 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨... 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘍𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭, 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.

Today (Sat. Feb. 4) is 立春(lì chūn) the official beginning of Spring according the Chinese lunisolar calendar while tomorrow (Sun Feb. 5) is 元宵节 (yuánxiāo jié) or Lantern Festival, the last day of Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year).

The market is full of soybean sprouts today as a sign of welcoming spring today with people preparing pancakes or rolls with the sprouts, hence the name #springrolls , known all over the world.

The ancient Lantern Festival is marked by lantern fairs, guessing riddles pasted on lanterns and eating Tangyuan (汤圆 tangyuan), also called Yuanxiao (元宵, yuán xiāo), balls of glutinous rice boiled in a sweet soup. The balls are usually filled with brown sugar, sesame seeds, peanuts, walnuts or pastes of red beans or red dates. Lion and dragon dances are popular during the Lantern Festival.

The Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) celebrations comprise of 15 days from New Year’s day until the first full moon of the new year, the Year of the Water Rabbit on which Lantern Festival is celebrated. The 15-day period sees many local celebrations in different regions of China.

See here the fire dragons dance in the coastal city 揭阳市 Jieyang in #Guangdong province, performed last Tuesday. The dance is being performed on the 10th day of the New Year since about 600 years in the city.