Brief introduction on Li Chun Day (立春簡介)

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In the previous posting, I have mentioned about Li Chun Day.

So what is Li Chun Day?

A lot of people might not know that, in our Lunar Calendar, Lunar New Year will only start after Li Chun Day or Lunar New Year will only be consider as Officially Arrived only after Li Chun Day.

Li Chun Day is a day to mark the start of a New Lunar Year and also, to mark the Arrival of the Spring Season.

Usually after this day, all plants will start to grow back again, all other events such as snow will slowly cease and accumulated ice will start to melt, etc.

So how to know when is Li Chun Day?

According to the Ancient Calculation, Li Chun Day will be within 49days after Dong Zhi (冬至) aka Winter Solstice or +/- 9 days from Lunar New Year (except for special Lunar Calendar Year).

In Solar Calendar (陽曆), usually Li Chun Day will fall within 3rd, 4th or 5th of every February.

So what are the events on this Li Chun Day?

In the past, on this day, Emperor would led the Officers of the Imperial Court to the Eastern Field (東郊 out from the Capital City) to usher the Spring or Deity of Spring (迎春神), this represent the Spring Deity was there to perform his task, etc.

As for commoners, they would visit Temples to pay respect to Deities for blessing for the New Year.

Some Folks Organisations would organize Traditional performances, Lion Dances, Guessing-games, etc.

For the modern day now, due to works, education, etc, a lot of such Traditional Dates/Festivals are being forgotten. This is indeed a pity sad thing.