Some stay at home to receive visitors. In
the house, sons and daughters, servants and slaves, all dress, and
appear before the heads of the family, to congratulate them on the new
year.
After new year's day, drinking and carousing, visiting and feasting,
idleness and dissipation, continue for weeks. All shops are shut, and
workmen idle, for a longer or shorter period, according to the
necessities, or the habits, of the several parties. It is, in Canton,
generally a month before the business of life returns to its ordinary
channel.
MEETING THE SPRING.
February 4, is a great holiday throughout the empire. It is called
Yingchun, that is, meeting the spring, to-morrow, when the sun enters
the 15 deg. of Aquarius, being considered the commencement of the spring
season. It is a sort of Lord Mayor's day. The chief magistrate of the
district goes forth in great pomp, carried on men's shoulders, in an
open chair, with gongs beating, music playing, and nymphs and satyrs
seated among artificial rocks and trees, carried in procession.
He goes to the general parade-ground, on the east side of Canton, on the
following day, being Lapchun, the first day of spring, in a similar
style.
Pages:
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59