79
PRINCIPAL festivals OBSERVED BY THE
CHINESE.
Dec. 19th 1850-X[th moon, 16th day. Festival of Kwányin. She has three during the year, all of which are observed by the people.
Jan. 9th, 1851.-XIIth moon, 8th day. Ancient festival of the prince and his officers going on the annual hunt. Also of the Jülái Budha.
Jan. 25th.-XIIth moon, 24th day. The god of the furnace ascends to heaven to report upon the conduct of the family to the Perfect August Shangti; hence people pay their adorations to that deity, and sié tsáu, ‘thank the furnace.' This popular superstition, though not peculiar to any class, seems most closely allied to the Táu sect.
Jan. 31st.—XIIth moon, 30th day. All the gods descend to the earth. Feb. 1st.—Ist moon, 1st day. Yuen tán, the first morning, or new year's day. The period of new year is almost the only tine of universal holiday in China. Other times and seasons are regarded only by a few, or by particular classes--but the new year is accompanied with a general cessation from bu- siness. The officer, the merchant and the laborer, all equally desist from work, and zealously engage in visiting and feasting,—occasionally making offerings at the temples of those deities whose peculiar aid they wish to implore. Govern- ment offices are nominally closed for about ten days before, and twenty days after newyear; during which period none but very important business is transacted. On the last evening of the old year, all tradesmen's bills and small debts are paid and inability to pass this time of settlement injures a man's credit, and usually results in insolvency; while too, the custom, by compelling an annual settlement of accounts prevents many failures. This is perhaps the reason why it is called chú seikh, ‘the evening of dismissal.'
Feb. 2d.-lst moon, 2d day. Ché Tá-yuen shwái; a deified warrior. Feb. 4th.-lat moon, 4th day. Leih chun terin, or festival of spring. This day, the period of the sun reaching the 15th degree in Aquarius, is one of the chief days of the Chinese calendar, and is celebrated with great pomp as well by the government as by the people. In every capital city, there are made, at this period, two clay images, a man and a buffalo. The day pre- vious to the festival, the chifű or chief city magistrate, goes out to ying chun, meet the spring; on which occasion childen are carried about on men's shoul- ders, each vying with his neighbor in the gorgeousness and fancifulness of the children's dresses. The following day, being the day of the festival, the pre- fect again appears as the priest of Spring, in which capacity he is, for the day, the first man in the province. Hence the chief officers do not move from hoine on this day. After he has struck the buffalo with a whip two or three times, in token of commencing the labors of agriculture, the populace then stone the image, till they break it in pieces. The festivities continue ten days in soine parts of the country, but the degree of ceremony attending this