Special Report: Spring Festival Special 2009
Video: Lichun Day and its
story
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BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Chinese media) -- Chinese moms and grandmas
were faced with a day of sweat and toil on Wednesday when the country waved
goodbye to winter and ushered in spring with traditional meals and other
celebrations.
"Lichun" -- literally, the "beginning of the spring"
-- the first day of the first of the 24 divisions of the solar year according to
the traditional Chinese calendar.
A family eat spring pancakes at a
restaurant in Beijing, capital of China, on Feb. 4, 2009, the Spring
Begins, first of the 24 solar terms in China's lunar calendar. People in
north China have the tradition to eat spring pancakes on the day.
(Chinese media/Chen Xiaogen)
Photo Gallery
"I got up much earlier this morning and rushed to the
market, only to find long queues," said Wang Yanlin, a 56-year-old housewife in
northeastern Liaoning Province.
"Ingredients for 'chunbing' have all doubled in price
and still sell like hot cakes," she said, referring to the pancake largely
consumed on the day, which is made of flour, eggs, bean sprouts and leek.
"I have to buy them because it's the tradition I have
to observe," Wang added.
Long queues could also be seen in cities like Beijing
and Shanghai, where people were purchasing food for the occasion.
The tradition of eating special snacks and dinners on
the day is called "yaochun," which literally means "biting the spring." Other
favorite dishes on the day include "zhouzi," braised pork joints and "chunjuan,"
fried rolls stuffed with leek and eggs.
Lichun is celebrated in different ways throughout the
country.
A waitress serves spring pancakes at a
restaurant in Beijing, capital of China, on Feb. 4, 2009, the Spring
Begins, first of the 24 solar terms in China's lunar calendar. People in
north China have the tradition to eat spring pancakes on the day.
(Chinese media/Chen Xiaogen)
Photo Gallery
In the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,
many people mark the day by tying red cloth to their doors to invite in the
spring and good luck.
In the Dongsishitiao hutong, a zigzagging lane of
Beijing, local residents embraced the spring with smiles and cheerful shouts of
"here comes the spring!"
"We are trying to revitalize the traditional way of
heralding the spring in the city," said a senior citizen who lead the crowd,
gongs in hand.
For most of the young people, however, the day only
means a change to their menu.
"I know little about the day because it's not a
festival like Christmas or the Spring Festival," said Liu Zhiqiang, a
white-collar worker in his 20s in the eastern Jiangsu Province, who had only
realized it was Lichun when his mother asked him to have a taste of the chunjuan
on the table.
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