Customs of Chaoshan Chinese Valentine's Day

Chinese Valentine's Day in Chaoshan has the custom of "going for a walk".

Chaoshan people are used to calling their daughters "Zouzai". Married daughters meet to return to their parents' home on the same day, which is commonly known as "Zouzai Meeting". There is a record of "mothering parents" in The Book of Songs Nan Zhou Ge Mushroom. "Mothering" means that a woman returns to her mother's family after marriage. Later, this custom spread to Chaoshan area with the migration of immigrants from the Central Plains, which shows that it has a long history.

there are three times of "mothering" rituals, commonly known as "returning to your hometown for the first time", "returning to your hometown for the second time" and "returning to your hometown for the third time". The "Zouzai Club" is a folk festival in which married women return to their parents' homes on the same day every year after the ceremony of "mothering". The date of the "Walking Boy's Party" is mostly set in the traditional festivals of the lunar calendar, among which the most common is the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

In the early morning of this day, the married "walkers" invariably took their husbands and children with them and returned to their parents' homes to visit their relatives. In the old days, most of the gifts were "sweet peanut pig's foot soup" and "sweet lotus seed soup". However, with the update of the concept of the times, most of the gifts given today are dry products, which means that the lucky ones are the best, such as eggs symbolizing reunion and fans symbolizing longevity.

The married "walkers" returned to their parents' homes on the same day. They reminisced about their childhood anecdotes and talked about how to be a "good wife and mother". They also meet together to express their condolences to their parents and pour out their feelings for their parents, which can not only warm the lonely hearts of the elderly, but also make them feel happy in their later years.

The gifts sent by the "walkers" are meant to repay the kindness of their parents. This is the connotation of the "Walking Club". The "Walking Children's Party" is a unique festival among the people in Chaoshan area, which inherits and carries forward the good moral customs of Chaoshan people's affection and hometown friendship and filial piety to their elders.

What are the customs in Chinese Valentine's Day, Guangdong Province?

1. Offering sacrifices to an old woman: There is a custom in Guangdong that the "Begging for Qiaojie Festival" is offered to an old woman every year on the seventh day of July. Pingpo's name comes from Sanskrit, and it is said that it was introduced from the Western Regions by Master Sanzang in the Tang Dynasty. Because the seventh day of July is also the gathering day of Cowherd and Seven Sisters, it is also called "Seven Sisters Fruit". Apple was listed around the seventh day of July, and it is a rare fruit in Lingnan, also known as "Eichhornia crassipes".

2. Boating at Shimen Aquilaria Pub: According to Volume 17 of Guangzhou City Records, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, there was an old custom of women boating at Shimen Aquilaria Pub. Yachts are decorated with jasmine flowers and jasmine flowers, which are called flower boats. They believe this day is "Fairy Shower Day".

above content reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Chaoshan