China Local Custom Tips by mke1963

The fun of having fun at the temple fairs

Traditionally at the beginning of the new lunar year, good Chinese folk dressed up in their finest and went to the temple to pay their respects to gods and ancestors. Vendors recognised the opportunity to sell more than just incense, candles and flowers to the worshippers, and all kinds of gifts, toys and general goods were laid out on the stalls and tables in the streets leading to the gates. Over the centuries, every man, woman and child was either selling or buying, and often both. Entertainers and fortune-tellers, always suckers for a good crowd, appeared.

Communities put on traditional and contemporary displays, loosely weaving in the tales and legends of the New Year. Whether it is a dragon dance, a puppet performance or a staggeringly loud orchestra of huge drums, it all creates a whirling clash of rhythm and colour.

At the temple fair, China returns to its childhood, buying little toys, colourful windmills, flowers, knickknacks for the house or the car, and skipping around in shrieks of laughter and simple joy. Everyone remembers when the temple fairs of their childhood, although for several generations, the removal of any religious ceremonies from public view requires inherited memories from grandparents. It was always colder, icier, crisper in the old days – just like European summers were always warmer in our youth.
More than a billion people visit temple fairs every year, driving a significant smidgen of China’s GNP. A billion people wrapped up like colourful snowmen – jackets, hats, scarves, gloves and even redundant face-masks to keep the biting chill away. For a few days each year, China stops working, bundles up against the sub-zero temperatures and goes out to play. It is a good time to be in China and watch the worries of rent, pay, freedoms and survival slip away with those chilled wisps of breathe, and the fun of having fun take over for a brief spell.