Most authoritative guides to Chinese culture will inform you that the Chinese New Year celebration – known as Spring Festival (Chūn Jié 春节) – extends over 15 days. The end of this wonderful, family oriented holiday period is marked by Lantern Festival (Yuán Xiāo Jié元宵节), which falls on its 15th day. Of course there are many traditions associated with the celebration of Spring Festival and Lantern Festival. Whilst some of the rich traditions are common throughout the country, diverse and strong local traditions are also found in many places.


The promised parade was more than we had
dared to imagine; a magnificent kaleidoscope of local talent and culture, with
both traditional and modern elements. Dragons, lion dancers, floats, marching
bands, firecrackers (wouldn’t be a
Chinese parade without these), dancers, marionette like dolls and, much to our
delight, ‘piāo sè’ floats. It was a magnificent treat to see real piāo sè in
this parade – piāo sè are an aspect of local culture that I had long heard
about. But, till now, it had been mysterious and utterly elusive. Local city folk,
including my colleagues, all seem to know about piāo sè, but few have actually
seen them, and it is a rare few that have knowledge of when and where one might
be able to experience this beautiful and famous element of local culture.

Two other components of the procession were
also particularly intriguing and extremely unusual – a fruit dragon and a
ritualistic display by older teenage boys. The fruit dragon was truly impressive
and obviously required many many hours of work to construct – it included,
pineapples, pomelos (like large grapefruit), bananas and, quite appropriately,
parts of the dragon fruit plant! Its real significance eluded us; did it perhaps
signify abundance and pose as an auspicious talisman for future harvests?
The most unusual parade participants were teenage
boys riding on floats, or small platforms, supporting miniature, intricately decorated
temples. All these boys had fine steel spears piercing one cheek. From what we
could understand, this was a combination of a display of spiritual faith to their
god(s) along with a ritual of entering adulthood – all seemed to be about the
same age and in their late teens. Perhaps they hope this ritual will help
ensure success in their exams and future opportunities, or maybe it was a
desire to show their manhood and be part of the group. Or, perhaps it was actually
just the lure of a new tracksuit – all were wearing identical, brand new adidas tracksuits.
The processional route was obviously
planned with exceptional care. It travelled as many of the streets and laneways
as physically possible, paying respect and celebrating significant localities
within the ‘village’ including the local school, the market and, all
importantly, the local temples. It truly had the feeling of locals conducting a
celebration for themselves. Whilst all visitors, including ourselves, were
openly welcomed – they had not made any obvious efforts to attract outsiders.