With the shortages of the planned economy 30 years ago, many Chinese snapped up meat, vegetables, fruit, candies and dim sum, spending the Lunar New Year holiday indulging an appetite for sumptuous food in the hope it would bring luck.
Nowadays, with a myriad of fresh vegetables, imported tropical fruits, and choice cuts of meat available in most supermarkets and convenience stores, many are curbing their indulgence in favor of paying their respects to Nature, the giver of their bounty.
In Jiangbin Park, Jiangmen City in Guangdong Province, a riverbank was taken over by people freeing aquatic animals on Friday, the second day of the Year of Rabbit.
Thousands swarmed to the embankment to release more than 38,000 carp into the Xijiang River. Around 1,000 birds were also freed.
Jiangmen, known as the hometown of many of China's 4 million emigrants,has a tradition of freeing captive animals in the Lunar New Year.
Since 2003, the city government has organized an annual campaign to release fish fry. To date, about 800 million have been freed.
Designating the embankment a permanent release spot, First Deputy Mayor Nie Dangquan said residents could liberate captive aquatic life at the site anytime.
A popular saying has it that the people of Guangdong, especially those in Guangzhou, will eat anything with four legs except a table, anything in the water except leeches and anything that flies except airplanes.
A Jiangmen man surnamed Feng said that freeing animals during the Spring Festival was necessary to remind people not just of personal health and prosperity, but also the good of other living creatures.
"When it comes to holiday feasts, we need to talk about thrift and bow to Nature," he said.
In Inner Mongolia to the north, where animal husbandry drives the economy, a herdsman held a ceremony the same day to honor his livestock.
After cleaning his sheep pen, Dorji put up red lanterns and stuck red paper on the horns of two rams. Feeding the sheep until they were full, he began to burn pine branches and a butter lamp, praying for his stock to multiply and stay healthy in the New Year.
"Mongolians love our livestock. The annual celebration is a long tradition to show our respect and appreciation to livestock and Nature as our lives depend on them," said Dorji, of Tarangole Village in Erdos City.
With herding families settling down to farm with pens and ranches, Dorji said, village celebrations in the grasslands have been reduced to smaller household observances.
