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New Year's festival of goods, food and fun
January 22, 2010, Friday
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THE Chinese Year of the Tiger is ready to pounce, and Hangzhou is getting ready with a huge festival featuring traditional decorations, foods, folk arts and performances.
The city's first Nianhuo (Spring Festival goods) Festival opens today and runs through February 6 in Yuhang District at the Hangzhou Subsidiary Agricultural Products Center.
An estimated 10,000 servings of traditional laba zhou (rice porridge with nuts and dried fruit eaten on the eighth day of the last lunar month) will be given out today by Lingyin (Soul's Retreat) Temple and Fajing Temple. The porridge is sweet and can include sticky rice, millet, sorghum, red beans, lotus seeds, chestnuts, peanuts, jujubes and other foods.
The 15-day fair will have special offers every day, and on the final day many gifts will be presented to visitors.
Unlike previous festival goods exhibitions, this nianhuo festival is more like a traditional temple fair where thousands of people gather to do their Spring Festival shopping, eating and enjoying folk art and performances.
There will be 300 vendors selling new year's goods from around China, including Yunnan and Shandong provinces, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northeast China and Taiwan.
Typical Taiwanese nianhuo are sold by vendors from the island province, including snacks and rice cakes.
Folk artists will perform traditional operas, magic shows, lion and dragon dances. Craftsmen will demonstrate and sell red paper-cuts, statues, ornaments and many other items.
Chinese painters and calligraphers will be at work, creating Spring Festival scrolls and couplets.
Around 100 free shuttle buses will ferry passengers from 100 neighborhoods. Visitors can also take their own nianhuo to trade at the market.
"We are really looking forward to this event and the whole family will go shopping and enjoy the atmosphere of Chinese New Year," says Yu Jialiang, a 47-year-old Hangzhou resident.
"We will wear new clothes and eat traditional food. It seems like the whole world is full of the Spring Festival atmosphere," says Yu.
All the children and young people in the big family are going. "It's a good opportunity for them to get close to the customs and traditions of Chinese New Year," he says.
Date: through February 6
Venue: Hangzhou Subsidiary Agricultural Products Center (Zhejiang Food Market), Gouzhuang Rd, Yuhang District
About the festival
The Chinese Lunar New Year, commonly known as the Spring Festival, is the most important holiday in China and a time when families unite and celebrate new beginnings.
It begins on the first day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar and ends on the 15th day.
This year, it's the Year of the Tiger and falls on February 14.
It's a time for cleaning house and buying new clothes.
A reunion dinner is held on the Lunar New Year's Eve and all family members gather from near and far. The dinner is sumptuous and traditionally features chicken and fish.
Special shopping is required for tea, rice, salt, meat, tofu, wine, nuts and fruit for the guests.
Special foods include Buddha's Delight (luohan zhai), an elaborate vegetarian dish served on the Chinese New Year's Eve and Lunar New Year's Day; jau gok (youjiao), Cantonese dumplings eaten during the Chinese New Year; jiaozi (dumplings stuffed with meat and vegetable); Mandarin oranges; melon seeds; niangao (sweet rice cakes); and noodles.
Markets and open-air village fairs are traditionally set up as the holiday approaches.
They sell decorations, images of the Chinese zodiac animal, toys, clothing, flowers, fireworks and all kinds of food.
People buy gifts to take on their new year's visits and decorations for their own homes, such as red paper-cuts, Chinese knots, pictures and couplets - one strip for each side of the door.
Folk artists demonstrate their crafts. There's Chinese traditional music and dance, including traditional operas, dragon dance and lion dance.
The city's first Nianhuo (Spring Festival goods) Festival opens today and runs through February 6 in Yuhang District at the Hangzhou Subsidiary Agricultural Products Center.
An estimated 10,000 servings of traditional laba zhou (rice porridge with nuts and dried fruit eaten on the eighth day of the last lunar month) will be given out today by Lingyin (Soul's Retreat) Temple and Fajing Temple. The porridge is sweet and can include sticky rice, millet, sorghum, red beans, lotus seeds, chestnuts, peanuts, jujubes and other foods.
The 15-day fair will have special offers every day, and on the final day many gifts will be presented to visitors.
Unlike previous festival goods exhibitions, this nianhuo festival is more like a traditional temple fair where thousands of people gather to do their Spring Festival shopping, eating and enjoying folk art and performances.
There will be 300 vendors selling new year's goods from around China, including Yunnan and Shandong provinces, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northeast China and Taiwan.
Typical Taiwanese nianhuo are sold by vendors from the island province, including snacks and rice cakes.
Folk artists will perform traditional operas, magic shows, lion and dragon dances. Craftsmen will demonstrate and sell red paper-cuts, statues, ornaments and many other items.
Chinese painters and calligraphers will be at work, creating Spring Festival scrolls and couplets.
Around 100 free shuttle buses will ferry passengers from 100 neighborhoods. Visitors can also take their own nianhuo to trade at the market.
"We are really looking forward to this event and the whole family will go shopping and enjoy the atmosphere of Chinese New Year," says Yu Jialiang, a 47-year-old Hangzhou resident.
"We will wear new clothes and eat traditional food. It seems like the whole world is full of the Spring Festival atmosphere," says Yu.
All the children and young people in the big family are going. "It's a good opportunity for them to get close to the customs and traditions of Chinese New Year," he says.
Date: through February 6
Venue: Hangzhou Subsidiary Agricultural Products Center (Zhejiang Food Market), Gouzhuang Rd, Yuhang District
About the festival
The Chinese Lunar New Year, commonly known as the Spring Festival, is the most important holiday in China and a time when families unite and celebrate new beginnings.
It begins on the first day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar and ends on the 15th day.
This year, it's the Year of the Tiger and falls on February 14.
It's a time for cleaning house and buying new clothes.
A reunion dinner is held on the Lunar New Year's Eve and all family members gather from near and far. The dinner is sumptuous and traditionally features chicken and fish.
Special shopping is required for tea, rice, salt, meat, tofu, wine, nuts and fruit for the guests.
Special foods include Buddha's Delight (luohan zhai), an elaborate vegetarian dish served on the Chinese New Year's Eve and Lunar New Year's Day; jau gok (youjiao), Cantonese dumplings eaten during the Chinese New Year; jiaozi (dumplings stuffed with meat and vegetable); Mandarin oranges; melon seeds; niangao (sweet rice cakes); and noodles.
Markets and open-air village fairs are traditionally set up as the holiday approaches.
They sell decorations, images of the Chinese zodiac animal, toys, clothing, flowers, fireworks and all kinds of food.
People buy gifts to take on their new year's visits and decorations for their own homes, such as red paper-cuts, Chinese knots, pictures and couplets - one strip for each side of the door.
Folk artists demonstrate their crafts. There's Chinese traditional music and dance, including traditional operas, dragon dance and lion dance.
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