Lunar New Year Events in Shui Hau Village

Lunar New Year Events in Shui Hau Village

Lunar New Year is one of the most important celebrations among rural villages. Shui Hau village is no exception, as the indigenous inhabitants still keep passing down their traditions to generations. Every second day of the Lunar New Year (“初二”), the villagers will gather and return to Shui Hau Village to celebrate the arrival of the new year, even though some of them have moved to urban areas. Shui Hau villagers continue the tradition of worshipping “Tai Wong Yeh (大王爺)” and “Shea Tan (the shrine of the Earth God who protects the farmland), and even “Cai Qing (採青, meaning plucking the greens) with lion dancing. In the old days, the Shui Hau villagers had been practising farming for a living. While we have planned to kick off the recultivation in Shui Hau, it is hoped that joining the worship of “Tai Wong Yeh” and “Shea Tan” would be a good start for the future farmland rejuvenation and wishing for a new page of good future for the nature in Shui Hau.

We have designed a set of five ”Fai Chun” (Chinese couplets) (1) “福 (Good Fortune)” character: blue colour in the middle of the character with the words “Shui Hau (水口)” and gold rice on the “田 (farmland)” character, implying a prosperous year; (2) “Like a Fish in Water (如魚得, meaning is similar to like a duck to water)”; (3) “Be Always Smiling” (笑常開)”; (4) “Smart and Clever”; (5) “Long Live Spirit”. (2)-(3): by connecting the bold characters/arrangement in the picture, the words “Shui Hau (水口)” can be read out, hoping to bring blessings to Shui Hau Village in the Lunar New Year. Meanwhile, all the “Fai Chun” have auspicious cloud patterns composed of the Chinese characters “Shui Hau (水口) “. During our visit on the second day of the Lunar New Year, we saw many villagers putting up our designed ”Fai Chun”. There were lots of villagers admired the design of “福” that includes the element of irrigation channel and paddy fields, echoing their hope on the revival of the extensive golden farmland landscape through our project.

Finally, we are very grateful to the villagers for inviting us to celebrate the Lunar New Year together so that we could all feel the lively atmosphere and traditions of the rural village. After the Lunar New Year, we will start to recultivate the farmland that has been neglected for a long time, as we have been conducting a baseline ecological survey for a year and have nearly finished the land survey. Good luck with our farmland recultivation!

#CommunityEngagement

 

↑ “Tai Wong Yeh” worship

↑ “Shea Tan” worship

↑ “Cai Qing” with lion dancing

↑ Distributing “Fai Chun” to villagers at Shui Hau “Fung Wong” Store

 

↑ The design concepts of Shui Hau “Fai Chun”

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