New Year Flower Fair lightens up festival mood

It’s universally acknowledged that the Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, is the most significant traditional festival for Chinese people. The core of the festival is universal -- a precious time for reunion and expressing good wishes towards the coming year -- but forms of celebration vary from place to place. We can get a glimpse of regional folk customs through these activities. For example: the old tradition ofDatiehua, which literally means to spray melted iron, is a well-preserved convention in Yu and Jin regions in celebration of the New Year. When it comes to the Cantonese way to bid farewell to last year and bring in the new one, visiting the Flower Fair is an integral part of the celebrations. Guangzhou boasts the reputation of the “flower city” due to its warm and humid climate, which gives rise to the tradition of hosting and strolling through a flower fair.

On entering the gate, you will find yourself immersed in a colorful world -- a sea of flowers as well as an influx of people -- with arresting and assorted flowers in contrasting colors being the best decorations. The quaint neighborhood of Beijing Road and Shangxiajiu, with its cobblestone streets, unique buildings with arcades, is constantly abuzz with outdoor markets, street entertainment and delicious places to wine, dine and enjoy life in this particular period. Roaming in the world of flowers, surrounded by different kinds of flowers, lingering over stalls, soaking up fragrance and festive mood, people always have such a great time that they lose track of it. Happiness and joy are not only exuded from beautiful bright plants, but also shown on people’s smiling faces. This is the spirit of a festival; this is the mood for a festival.

In general, those flowers that are attached to auspicious meanings are the most popular, such as peach blossom (Taohua), butterfly orchid (Hudielan), narcissus (Shuixian), kumquat (Jinju). Here are some basic knowledge about the flowers we love. Peach blossom is thought to be able to bring good luck to people in finding their loved ones, therefore it stands for rosy spring and romance. Butterfly orchid stands out gaily thanks to its beautiful color and shape, symbolizing grace and elegance. Pink, crimson, yellow, white, purple and a million and one options that cater to your taste astonishe you. As for kumquat, because the tiny fruits on its burgeon resemble dough and its name is similar to the Chinese character “Ji”, it can’t be missed out on the shopping list expressing wishes for a good prospects and prosperity in wealth.

With thousands of people visiting, the flower fair definitely lightens up the festive mood and serves as a prelude to a yearly carnival.