CHAPTER XI.

FESTIVALS.

PUBLIC festivals in China are as a rule in honour of the deities, and the occasions of this kind, as well as others of a private nature, which are observed as holidays, are so numerous that, although the Chinese have no Sabbath, or weekly day of rest, I am disposed to think few nations, if any, have more days of recreation in the course of the year. It opens with the SanLin, or New Year's festival, the Bacchanalia of the Chinese. As the Chinese year commences from the new moon nearest to 15° of Aquarius, into which sign the sun passes in the month of January, the festival takes place towards the end of this month. It usually extends over a period of from one to three weeks, and may be regarded as commencing several days before the close of the Old Year. During these days everybody who can devotes himself to pleasure, and the mandarins only attend to business of a very pressing character. With others it is a time of bustle and excitement, which increases as the last day of the year approaches. Merchants and shopmen hurry to and fro closing accounts and collecting debts; and wretched is thought the plight of the man who cannot close his annual term with a satisfactory balance on the favourable side. The retail houses overflow with customers, as it is an object with sellers to clear off their goods as quickly as possible, and with purchasers to supply their wants at an unusually moderate rate. The quantity of money that circulates in consequence as the year wanes must be enormous, and in many cases shops

are kept open until late on the closing day, and the occupants may be observed in a feverish state of excitement receiving money and taking rapid account of their transactions, fearful lest the new year should dawn upon them ere their books are properly balanced." In private houses, servants devote themselves to "cleaning." When the floors have been washed, they are covered with carpets. Old scrolls and charms are taken down to be replaced by fresh ones. The tables, and the antique wooden chairs which one finds in a Chinese house, are covered with red cloth embroidered with flowers. The ancestral hall is decorated with flags and flowers. On the last day of the year, strips of red paper, with characters implying good fortune, wealth, happiness, and so on, are posted on each side of the outer doors of the house; and on the doors themselves are hung large pictures of two Chinese generals, who, it seems, were of signal service to an Emperor who reigned more than three thousand years ago. This Emperor could not sleep, because he had dreamt that evil spirits entered the palace in the night, and his minister's protestations to the contrary failed to reassure him. He ordered these generals to keep watch at the gates during the "witching" hours, and his slumbers were once more undisturbed. They are now regarded, accordingly, as the gods of the portals, and their portraits are always placed on the doors at the New Year. Poor people who are unable to purchase the portraits fix placards with the names of the generals to the doors.

A few days before the New Year, generally on the 28th or 29th of the twelfth month, what is called the Tuen-Nin, or Wa-shun, takes place. This ceremony, which is observed by all classes of society, consists in giving thanks to the tutelary deity of the house for his preservation of the dwelling and its inmates during the year. At the close of worship, a dinner is given at which all the inmates are present. In wealthy families, this banquet is on a larger scale, beginning on the 27th and

The scrolls are written by calligraphists, generally decayed or unsuccessful scholars, who, at this season especially, are to be found seated at their little tables, in the courtyards of temples, public squares, tea-gardens, and by the roadside. A family in which a death has occurred within the year uses strips of blue paper with inscriptions expressive of mourning.