As the Year of the Pig approaches, many people in Shenzhen are gearing up to celebrate the Chinese New Year with local customs. Many cultural organizations have also scheduled various events to highlight the traditional side of the festival.

Placing kumquat trees, regarded as a symbol of good fortune, inside houses, eating sugarcane, which represents a sweet life, visiting flower fairs and giving money in red envelopes to unmarried people and subordinates, are now well-established Shenzhen customs. But there are other traditional celebrations on view during the Spring Festival, some specific to individual districts.

Luohu

Longtime Luohu residents perform lion dances during the Chinese lunar New Year. Earlier they would make stir-fried rice cakes a part of the festival.

"Every household in my village used to make stir-fried rice cakes. They ground rice into powders and mix them with syrups and peanuts, then make them into small round-shaped cakes. Some painted the characters of 'blessing' or 'longevity' on the cakes in red," said Liang Haiwen, a resident of Caopu Village.

Residents nowadays no longer make the traditional cakes, but instead buy them in Hong Kong. But eating rice cakes during the Spring Festival remains a tradition in the area.

Futian

Futian residents, especially those living in neighborhoods like Xiasha, Shangsha, Shazui, Shawei, Xinzhou and Shixia, get together and eat basin dish feasts to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Basin dish feasts are usually held around the Lantern Festival (the 15th day of the lunar calendar) among residents sharing the same ancestor, and therefore the same family name, to remember their forefathers.

People surnamed Wen, Liang, and Mo will hold large-scale basin dish feasts in Shawei on March 3, 4 and 5 respectively.

Nanshan

Tianhou Temple in Chiwan, dedicated to the legendary goddess of the sea, holds a traditional ceremony during the Spring Festival to pray for good fortune. The ceremony starts on the eve of the Chinese New Year and lasts for several days.

The Kaiding Festival, celebrated on the 13th day of the first lunar month, is an important festival for fishermen in Shekou, possibly even more important than the Spring Festival. According to custom, families in which sons were born in the previous year would invite the neighbors to drink tea and have refreshments. However, now every household prepares tea for families and friends. It is popularly believed that families entertaining a large number of guests on that day will become prosperous in the new year.

The Kaiding Festival party and garden parade will be held in Yu'er Village on March 2.

Bao'an

Guanlan in Bao'an District is where most of Shenzhen's Hakka population resides. The Hakka people, who moved from Meizhou and Heyuan in Guangdong Province several hundred years ago, have retained all their customs, including the Chinese New Year celebrations.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, the Hakkas of Guanlan prepare four traditional dishes - dog meat, tofu, stewed goose, and stewed pork with pickles.

Stewed goose is a very important dish for the Hakkas. The average family consumes between two and six geese during the Spring Festival. Earlier people preferred fat geese to symbolize a rich new year. But now thin geese are more popular.

Kylin dancing, a tradition which involved waving cloth kylin, one of the four wise animals in Chinese culture and looking like a deer with a single horn, is held on the first day of the lunar year in Shuiku New Village on Cuizhu Street.

Kylin dancing is the highlight of New Year's Day for the Hakkas. People perform the dance at ceremonies to remember ancestors, to celebrate moving in to new houses, after children are born and at marriages.

Yantian

The fish lantern dance is a tradition among fishermen in Shatoujiao of Yantian, who have been performing it as a way to worship Mazu, the goddess of the sea, since the end of the Ming Dynasty. The dance features performers playing the roles of shrimps, crabs, fish and fishermen with drums and traditional Chinese instruments as accompaniment.

Longgang

The grass dragon dance is a traditional Spring Festival folk ritual among fishermen in Nan'ao of Longgang District. To pray for protection when they go out to sea, fishermen in Nan'ao climb a mountain and cut grass on the second day of the lunar year. The grass is then tied to form the shape of dragon. People wave the grass dragon in face of the sea.

On the Lantern Festival, the thirteenth day of the first month of the lunar year, lanterns are hung along the seashore to guide the fishermen.

Editor: Yan