Directory_and_Chronicle_1877 — Page 52

NATIVE FESTIVALS, FASTS, AND OBSERVANCES.

CHINESE.

TUNG-CHI.-Or Winter solstice, a festival observed by all classes; it is also called Chang-shi-tsieh, or the time when the long days come, because then the sun begins to return and the days grow longer. Officers go in state to worship the Emperor's tablet, and the people adore their lares.-Eleventh moon, eighteenth day.

SIE-TSAU.-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 sie-tsau, "thank the furnace." In some parts of China, this Shangti is regarded as the Supreme God in the Chinese pantheon, and it is supposed the other deities derive their power and position from him. This popular superstition, though not peculiar to any class, seems most closely allied to the Tau sect.-Twelfth moon, twenty-fourth day.

LEI-CHUNG. Lei-chung term, or festival of Spring. This day, the period of the sun reaching the 15th degree in Aquarius, is one of the er iet 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 of a man and a buffalo., The day previous to the festival, the chiju, or chief city magistrate, goes out to ying chun, "meet the spring," on which occasion children are carried about on men's shoulders, each vieing with his neighbour in the gorgeousness and fancifulness of the children's dresses. The following day, being the day of the festival, the prefect 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 home on this day. After he has struck the buffalo with a whip two or three times, in token of commencing the labours of agriculture the populace then stone the image till they break it in pieces, and many of them carry off pieces of the clay to put on their fields, under the impression that a better crop will thereby be obtained. The festivities continue ten days in some parts of the country, but the degree of ceremony attending this festival differs greatly in different parts of China; in Canton it is not attended with much display. The next Lei-chung term occurs on the twenty-first day of the Twelfth-moon (3rd February, 1877).

YUEN TAN.-Yuen-tan, the first morning, or new-year's day. The period of new-year is almost the only time 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 business. The officer, the merchant, and the labourer, 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. Government offices are nominally closed for about ten days before, and twenty days after, new-year; 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