Spring Festival
01 · Historical Records
This custom originated in Guangzhou and has spread throughout the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong and Macao, and even to overseas Chinese settlements; it is loved by the public for its festive atmosphere, auspicious meanings, and refined charm. In the Ming dynasty, the Guangzhou flower markets were already grouped with the Luofu Mountain medicinal market, the Dongguan incense market, and the Lianzhou pearl market as the "Four Markets" of Guangdong; by the late Qing they had come to be characterized by being "most exuberant at year's end." In the 1920s, strolling the flower streets took place from the twenty-fourth of the twelfth lunar month through the night of New Year's Eve. After 1949, the custom of strolling the flower streets grew rather than waned, and its timing gradually became fixed to the late-night hours from the twenty-eighth to the thirtieth of the twelfth month.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xinghuajie (strolling the flower streets), that is, visiting the spring flower markets, is a large-scale traditional custom of the Guangfu region on the eve of the Spring Festival. It refers to the activities held between the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month and New Year's Eve each year, when people gather at designated venues in festivities that bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new and that pray for and celebrate the coming year, taking flowers as the main medium and New Year folk culture, flower culture, and commercial culture as the main content. Dong Biwu wrote the poem "New Year's Eve in the City of Rams," which reads: "Everywhere the Spring Festival is being welcomed; the customs of the City of Rams are so distinctive. At year's end the flower markets are in an uproar; lucky money and pearls are talked of through the night." Strolling the flower streets is an indispensable activity for Guangfu people celebrating the New Year; among the people it is said that "if you have not strolled the flower streets, you have not celebrated the New Year." At that time, the long streets of ten li are decked with lanterns and silks, and the crowds, shoulder to shoulder, bring relatives and friends to wander amid seas of flowers and streams of people, buying all kinds of New Year flowers and New Year goods, or admiring the flowers and enjoying themselves and gathering with friends; all of them welcome the new year and seek good fortune at this grand occasion — indeed, "stroll the flower streets, and great fortune turns your way." It brings together elements such as booth building, lantern decoration, the art of couplets, local delicacies, arts and crafts, and folk performance, serving as a concentrated showcase of Guangfu culture. The "New Year flowers" mainly comprise four major categories — blossoming branch plants, fresh-cut flowers, potted kumquats, and potted flowering plants — all of which carry rich, auspicious meanings. For example, the kumquat signifies "great fortune," the peach blossom signifies romance and "grand prospects," and the pitcher plant signifies "wealth rolling in." Flower sellers and customers have the custom of haggling; flower prices are chosen with care, mostly containing the numbers 3, 8, and 9, which are homophones of "life," "prosper," and "long-lasting"; transactions between flower growers and sellers and the bidding for flower stalls also stress auspiciousness, reflecting the tradition of the Guangfu people from antiquity to the present of loving flowers and favoring "lucky meanings." Strolling the flower streets displays the people's fervent hopes for a better life, the distinctive character and style of the Guangfu commercial cities, and the flourishing scene of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. As a grand traditional folk event found throughout the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and even among overseas Chinese, it has profound practical significance for strengthening interregional cultural exchange, promoting cultural identity, and enhancing the spiritual cohesion of the Chinese nation.
The flower market opens on the twenty-eighth
Stalls open from the twenty-eighth day of the last month and stay open through new year’s eve, turning the street into a lit river of people and blossoms.
Four kinds of lucky flowers
Branches, cut flowers, kumquat trees and potted blooms each carry an auspicious meaning chosen by the buyer.
Haggling over lucky numbers
Prices turn on the digits three, eight and nine, and the ritual of haggling is part of the custom rather than mere bargaining.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In the Guangfu dialect a marketplace is called a "street market" (jieshi), so "flower street" and "flower market" are synonymous.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival · Spring Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Strolling the flower streets pushes flowers from garden viewing to the front of the marketplace: New Year flowers, New Year goods, calligraphy and paintings, and local snacks are displayed together along the same street, making it a typical Guangfu occasion that merges commerce, decoration, and seasonal ritual into one. The rules of stressing lucky meanings in prices and auspiciousness in transactions lend the process of buying and selling a ceremonial character. In recent years, Guangzhou's flower markets have been divided into venues across multiple districts, with plastic and dried flowers sold alongside fresh ones, while traditional flower stalls and flower growers still account for a considerable share; zodiac-year themed flower markets and spring-welcoming lantern displays have carried this old custom into shopping districts and urban villages.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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