Liu Shinan

Maintain traditions of festivals

By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-06 06:24

At midnight on Lunar New Year's Eve, I stood on the balcony of my 11th floor apartment in Beijing and watched colourful fireworks rocket into the night sky from behind every building I could see. Deafening explosions swept across the city.

"Spring Festival has finally retrieved some of its most significant features," I told myself. The last time I had seen anything like this was from the same balcony 13 years ago. Major Chinese cities have banned fireworks and firecrackers since 1994.

In the following seven days of the Spring Festival holiday, children were seen setting off fireworks and firecrackers everywhere. They seemed to enjoy the loud explosions, dazzling lights and fragrant smoke. It was the first time for them to enjoy a Chinese tradition that has a history of several thousand years. This is truly ironic.

With the Chinese economy increasingly merging with the rest of the world, foreign thinking and ways of living have been finding their way into our "central kingdom." While some foreign customs such as Christmas and Valentine's Day have gained popularity among Chinese youth, some of our traditional festivities seem to have weakened.

I do not resent youngsters dabbling in foreign customs and culture. Young people are always curious about things that are novel and alien. And honestly, globalization brings more benefits than disadvantages to our nation. But I do worry that loss of some of our traditional customs will impair the core values of our culture.

Culture and tradition involve many small, delicate and sometimes intangible things, and their influence is subtle. But they play a substantive role in moulding minds and influencing ways of life.

When I was a boy, my parents took me to the countryside every year to visit my grandparents over the Spring Festival holiday. On New Year's Eve, they would hold a ceremony to offer sacrifices to our ancestors before the big dinner. That was the most exciting moment for a child like me.

The flickering light of the red candles, the scent from the burning incense sticks, the steam rising from the earthen bowls of pork and fish, and the lingering sound of a small bronze bell being struck all formed a memory that would last in my mind for many years. The memory also included my grandfather giving me the year-end red envelope containing money, my uncles putting me on the back of a lion they made with snow, and my aunts buying me sweets and peanuts at the temple fair. Those memories stir strong emotions in me about the affection between family members and the warmth of home.

That affection has been one of the major forces encouraging me to strive for success in my career and the memory of the warmth of home has been the most effective consolation whenever I was mired in difficulties.

I believe that is the feeling of the majority of Chinese people.

Some of the old customs associated with Spring Festival have disappeared, however. The family affection embodied by these customs also seems to be weakening. Perhaps we should do something to prevent this kind of feeling from waning further. Bringing back fireworks and firecrackers is a positive move in this regard, but we could do more. For instance, we could attach more importance to the Lantern Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Double 9th Festival.

Koreans have succeeded in claiming the Dragon Boat Festival as a World Heritage item. If we continue ignoring the weakening of our tradition, Vietnamese will probably end up claiming Spring Festival as their own.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/06/2006 page4)