Jieyang Spring Festival Customs

Jieyang Spring Festival Customs

Nominating Unit: City of Jieyang

There’re plenty of customs during the Spring Festival in Jieyang, which last from Dec. 28th of the lunar calendar of the previous year to Jan. 30th of the lunar calendar of the new year. The customs can be divided into three types: everyday customs, worship customs and entertainment customs. Everyday customs include eating sweet dumplings on Dec. 28th of the lunar calendar, worshipping of gods, offering sacrifices to the kitchen god ,welcoming the new year on eve of the lunar New Year, celebrating the Spring Festival, welcoming gods, celebrating Jan. 4th of lunar calendar (Nianjiakai), celebrating Jan. 7th of lunar calendar (Renri), crossing the colorful bridge, exhibiting Wengzai lanterns before the Pomenlou Building, celebrating the Lantern Festival, spring outing and so on. Worship customs include Gods Parade, Ju Wangye (teasing the god of Wangye), jumping around a fire, Baizhao(exhibiting the properties of different households and comparing with one another), the Contest for Pigs and Sheep , sending an incense boat for safe and sound life, the Chenghuang Temple Fair and so on. The entertainment customs include the fire dragon fireworks show, the drums and flags procession, the Wu Ying-Ge Performance, the nine crocodiles’ dance , the crane dance, the golden lion dance, the lantern riddles party, the poetic couplet duel and so on.

Spring Festival customs are similar in different parts of Jieyang, among which the most representative and infl uential custom is the “Crossing Colorful Bridge” in Rongcheng District. In the past, people must cross the Taiping (meaning “safe”) Bridge in front of the county government office in the hope for a safe and sound new year, which was called “crossing the first bridge”. Now that the bridge had been destroyed, the meaning of “crossing the first bridge” has become “the first time”.

The fire dragon fireworks shows are performed in Qiaolin Town of Dongshan District and Wujingfu Town, Mianhu Town of Jieyang County. The shows last for seven days. From Jan. 4th to Jan. 9th of lunar calendar, dragon dances are performed and spring welcoming celebrations are held. On Jan. 10th ,the last day of the shows, the dragons used in dragon dances are burnt. The Yingwuge performance are staged in Dananshan Town, Liaoyuan Town and Liusha Town of City of Puning of Jieyang. Drums and fl ags procession are held all over the city, with Jiedong County’s procession the grandest and widespread. Lion dance is very popular, particularly in Rongcheng District , which gives the most exciting lion dance performances. Contest of pigs is the main folk activity held in Xinheng Town of Jiedong County. Worshipping of gods varies in forms in different places of Jieyang, while the Chenghuang temple fair in Rongcheng District is the most representative one with the largest scale and the most complete rituals.(https://www.daowen.com)

In the long development history, Jieyang Spring Festival customs have gained their rich local characteristics, refl ecting the unique features of Chaoshan folk culture. It is of important value to study the local folk art, folk beliefs, consuming customs, drama, music, dance, martial arts and so on.

With the economic and social development, fewer and fewer people are involved in folk activities. It is even worse when the participants are aging and few successors are found. The lack of systematic research on the Spring Festival customs and the insufficient exploration of the cultural connotation of the folk activities have resulted in the deficiency of appeals which they should have. Therefore, relevant departments should attach great importance to the customs and take effective supportive and protective measures for them.