How much do you know about Cantonese new year customs?

The scene of the annual custom exhibition

Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Sun Lei correspondent Wu Qidong Wang Liang

Photo: Ratty Li Yuanqing

When it comes to Cantonese New Year customs, what first comes to mind? Some customs, such as visiting the flower street and washing sloppy, are still prosperous today; some customs, such as the 23rd festival of the god of Vesta and the worship of the god of wealth on the second day of the New Year, were once an indispensable part of the Lingnan Spring Festival, but they are gradually fading away with the development of the times.

Recently, Southern Media and Nanfeng Academy held a special exhibition of Lingnan New Year Customs, not only Foshan Woodblock New Year Paintings and Guangdong Paper-cutting National Intangible Cultural Heritage Projects, but also Lingnan New Year Customs Publications, Traditional Lingnan Halls, Lingnan Famous Artist Paintings, etc. The exhibition runs until February 28.

The highlights of the exhibition are two national intangible cultural heritage techniques with Guangdong characteristics and traditional traditional culture - Foshan woodblock prints and Guangdong paper-cutting.

Foshan woodblock prints began in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, flourished in the Ming Dynasty, flourished in the Early Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, and are on a par with Tianjin Yangliuqing, Suzhou Taohuawu and Shandong Weifang New Year Paintings, and are one of the four major woodblock Prints in China. It was once an important decoration for the festivals and houses in Lingnan, and in the past it sold well throughout Lingnan and even overseas, carrying people's yearning and wishes for a better life.

Due to the changes of the times, it was gradually weakened by the impact of modern lifestyles, and even disappeared completely. It was not until the end of the 1990s that Feng Bingtang, the son of the famous New Year painting artist Feng Jun (nicknamed "Door Shenjun"), gave up his original career to realize his father's last wish, re-studied and studied, and only then did the woodblock New Year paintings reappear in the sky.

The Feng's Nian Painting Workshop, which he founded, is the only existing workshop in Foshan that is still insisting on the production of New Year paintings, and this exhibition exhibits a full set of production tools and production processes of The Feng's Nian Painting Workshop, as well as representative works such as "Door God" and "God of Wealth". The simple and clumsy woodblock prints depict a deep Lingnan imprint with knives and pencils; exquisite engravings one by one, passing on unique New Year customs and blessings from the past to the present.

Guangdong paper-cutting is another national intangible cultural heritage project in this exhibition. The paper-cut exhibits in this exhibition come from non-genetic inheritors and enthusiasts in Foshan, Shantou Chaoyang, Leizhou and other places, which not only inherit the ancient intangible cultural heritage skills, show the colorful regional characteristics of Lingnan, but also combine the preferences of modern people to boldly innovate in artistic style and picture content.

Source: Yangcheng Evening News