The world seems to be more and more familiar with Chinese's most imprtant day -- the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year's Day. I would prefer the later one, as the event is not only a festival, but also the opening of a new year, using "Day" might be better on describing the importance of the day than using "Festival". Although in Chinese language, "festival" or "day" shares the same charactor when refering to the meaning of an annual event ("节", Jie), but it has a very slight different when being translating back into English -- as we generally don't call Christmas Day as "Christmas Festival"! However, in the following, I'll still speak "Spring Festival" since this noun has been used for long.

The coming year will be a year of Ox. Although all the Chinese will enjoy the same festival, there can be large difference on celebration way across the country. Today I'll show you how Cantonese (a.k.a. Guangzhou citizens) celebrate the festival, since I have lived at here for years.

The main entrance of the Tianhe Flower Market (panorama), the big character is "Ox"

The most classic and unique ceremony at Guangzhou for the Spring Festival celebration is the Greet Spring Flower Market ("迎春花市"). This might be the biggest difference compare to the northern cities, since Guangzhou is located in the south of the Tropic of Cancer, the flowers can grow and blossom even in winter. All eight districts, as well as some nearby cities (such as Foshan), will hold Flower Market, but those markets in downtown area are the biggest and hottest.

The market would be opened a few days before the New Year's Eve, but most people will choose the Eve for visit. If you go to the market in the evening of the New Year's Eve, you should be well prepared for heavy crowds. When I was very young, my family went to the Flower Market every year, and the visits were mostly finished by missing someone,  because there were too many people.

Why the Cantonese need to buy flowers at the Flower Market? As far as I know, that is partly because an old Chinese saying, "flowers blossom riches and honour". As the flowers are not likely to grow in the most Chinese cities, a blossom flower at the beginning of a year will have a very special meaning.

Someone is advertising his windmills at the Flower Market

However, flowers are not the only product at the market. When you visit the market, you will see windmills -- hold in the customers or are being sold. I don't know if buying windmills is also a Cantonese custom, but I doubt if there are any people who would like to hold a windmill in the cold northern cities. The meaning of windmill is quite clear -- because there is a Chinese phase goes as "turning (for good) fortune", and "turn" and "rotate" shares the same Chinese charactor. People believe that good fortune will come in the forthcoming year when the fans rotate.

There are also other habits -- for example, hanging red lantern and the "fortune" sign. The "fortune" sign should be installed up-side-down, why? That is because in Chinese language, the pronunciation of "up-side-down" is similar to "coming", so it's a custom to install the sign up-side-down to welcome the "fortune". It's also a custom to eat fish around the New Year's Day, the reason is somewhat similar: a Chinese saying goes "surplus in every year", and the pronunciation of "surplus" is the same as "fish". The most important custom across the country -- even for those overseas -- is having a family reunion dinner in the New Year's Eve, and this is one of the main reason why many Chinese are willing to board a heavy train back home during the Spring Move.

The crowd at the Flower Market

The Flower Market will close exactly at 12 a.m. of the New Year's Day. The unsold flowers will be ruined, because the custom is that the flowers must be bought and placed before the New Year comes.

According to my parents, in the old days the New Year's Day is the happiest hour for kids in a year, because only that day would the kids to be gave new cloths (must dress on in the New Year's Day), had nice food to eat, and earn lucky money. They would also enjoy a great time with the firecracker. Nowadays our teens will not treat new cloths and nice food as a major entertainment, we are more likely to find ourselves sitting bored at the restraut, while our parents are busying meeting the long-time-no-see relatives with emotion. But after all, there are still something for our teens to be busy with when the new year comes -- sending and replying the flood-in mobile phone messages and e-mails for New Year's greeting!