6 Editor: Chen Xingjie, Gu Jialan 5952-7617 [email protected] 29 January 2013 The A to Z of the Spring Festival

Catherine Hong The Spring Festival has many customs and foreigners new to can learn a great deal about Chinese people through the Lunar New Year holiday The Spring Festival is the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year. The Chinese character in ancient seal style for year has 禾 on the top and 千 at the bottom. 禾 means grain, while 千 means many. Therefore, all activities in the Spring Festival are a celebration of the harvest and to pray for a good harvest in the upcoming year. Even today, the Spring Festival still carries this meaning. The most important event of the Spring Festival is New Year’s Eve din- ner. According to tradition, all family members are supposed to present and indulge in a big feast. Many Chinese will travel across the country to en- sure they are home for the New Year’s Eve dinner. Families are considered the corner- A farmer with tasty strawberries at Dengta Village, which is famous for not using pesticides and chemical fertilizers. stone of society and unity is the basic requirement for the creation of wealth and well-being. Other customs include putting up Spring Festival scrolls and setting off Walking in a winter wonderland firecrackers. The scrolls are made with red paper and feature propitious sen- Zi Sha (Driver’s guide: Drive northward along Cost: 80-500 yuan tences for the New Year. These are the Chengbei Road from Jiading Town and inter doesn’t mean that there special forms of couplets when people turn left to Shuangzhu Road, Dengta Vil- is nothing to do in Jiading Flower show put them on the door during the New lage is at the end of Shuangzhu Road.) District. Enjoying picturesque Year for happiness. Putting on the W Cost: 40 yuan per kilo of strawberries Guyi Garden plans to offer a variety countryside scenery, admiring win- of activities to celebrate the Spring Spring Festival scrolls has a history tersweets, visiting ancient gardens Festival which starts from Febru- of over 1,000 years while setting off and even picking strawberries are all Fragrant wintersweet ary 10 this year. A flower exhibition firecrackers has been a Spring Festival good choices for you. Wintersweet in Waigang Winter- featuring wintersweet, narcissus and tradition for over 2,000 years. Accord- sweet Garden are now in full bloom. orchid blooms will offer a colorful ing to an ancient legend, people lit Delicious strawberries The flowers, which look like a golden scene to visitors and photographers firecrackers to scare evil monsters. bell, are exquisite and have a wonder- will likely find many wonderful Elders prepare hong bao for younger Strawberries grown in Dengta Vil- ful aroma. scenes to capture. members in the family. Hong bao, liter- lage in mature before Wintersweet has inspired many The garden has teamed with Jiading ally “red envelops,” is New Year lucky the Spring Festival. Chinese poets through the centu- Waigang Wintersweet Research Insti- money given in red envelopes. Dengta Village’s strawberries are ries including Su Dongpo, one of the tute to display 10 rare wintersweet famous because farmers don’t use Chinese greatest poets in the Song products including bonsai trees, agricultural pesticides and chemical Dynasty (960-1279). Visitors can also combinatorial potting and traditional fertilizers. The berries are big, sweet buy a winstersweet bonsai tree. flower arrangement. and smell wonderful. Visitors can The garden’s wintersweet flowers Narcissus flowers from Chongming pick strawberries until their hearts are big and fragrant with dense pet- County will be displayed at this year’s are content. als. The wintersweet of this garden, fair, too. The garden has cooperated Potted strawberry plants are sold together with the narcissus flowers in with the Shi family whose members for 20 yuan (US$3.2) for those who Chongming County and the white wil- have cultivated the flower for more want to grown their own. Some farm- low flowers in Fengxian District are than 100 years. ers also offer visitors a chance to dine known as ’s three treasured in their homes. objects in winter. Address: 218 Huyi Rd, Town Cost: 12 yuan Address: Dengta Village, Jiading Address: 2700 Moyu Rd N., Children display scrolls wishing a Industrial Zone Waigang Town (Translated by Catherine Hong) Happy New Year.

Exhibition hall preserves culture and customs Zi Sha and Catherine Hong photos to learn more about than 1,000 pieces dating back the food, clothes, housing and hundreds of years. The history of Malu Town is modes of transport common in Xu said the past 100 years being preserved at the Folk the area. was a period of great change in Custom Exhibition Hall in the Old furniture, agricultural China, when people longed for Cultural Activity Center of tools and textile machines rep- a modern style of life. But, he Malu Town. resent how time has changed. said when people become well- In the center there are also Some old ladies are showing off, they would lose interest two other exhibition halls. One their skills in weaving the in traditional things. He said is displaying personal collec- cloth. If you are interested, you the history needs something tions by Xu Zhenbao and the can even ask them to teach you to carry, and the articles he col- other showing carv- how to make it. lected are not only the articles ings of Jiang Yuming and his Xu’s collection includes coins themselves, but also the his- wife Su Yurong. from past dynasties, porcelain, tory, the culture. The three halls are open to silverware, embroidery, tiger Jiang and Su's bamboo carv- the public all day long and tour shoes, smoking pipes, farming ings integrate calligraphy, Visitors learn about the culture and history of Malu Town guides are available. instruments and other miscel- paintings, poems, articles through exhibits at the Folk Custom Exhibition Hall. In the Folk Custom Exhibi- laneous items. The coin collec- and seals. The couple has won tion Hall visitors can view old tion is impressive with more many national prizes.