Visitors pose with New Year decorations at the exhibition in Jiading Jan 3. [Photo/jiading.gov.cn] |
A folk culture exhibition themed on New Year and the Spring Festival opened Jan 3 at the culture and sports service center of Zhenxin subdistrict.
The exhibition explores the origins, traditions and local customs of New Year celebrations, offering locals various ways to relive their New Year memories.
A detailed introduction to local customs caught the attention of many spectators, with comments on offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God, sweeping dust, giving money to children as a New Year gift, performing dragon and lion dances, hanging out festive lanterns, and pasting Spring Festival couplets and pictures.
Food exhibits also brought back memories for many food enthusiasts, including laba porridge, a dish cooked with rice, nuts and dried fruit which is eaten on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, yuanxiao or sweet dumplings commonly filled with sesame and red bean paste and the dinner enjoyed by all family members at reunions on the eve of Chinese New Year.
The subdistrict carried out a series of activities to heat up the festive atmosphere, such as writing calendars, collecting fu, a Chinese character representing happiness, and snatching hongbao, red envelopes containing auspicious words inside and designed with images of rats, one of the 12 zodiac signs and the symbol for 2020.
The exhibition will run through to Feb 8.
A visitor poses in front of a wall of hongbao, or red envelopes containing auspicious words. [Phto/jiading.gov.cn] |