Local Holidays and Festival Celebrations

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Hainan International Coconut Festival: From the ancient times, Hainan was known as “Coconut Island”, and the coconut palm is the symbol of Hainan. During April 3rd-7th,1992, the first Hainan International Coconut Festival was held. After that, from the every end of March to the beginning of April, there will be the Coconut Festival. It has become an influential celebration in Hainan. Coconut Festival is the combination of touring, culture, customs, physical sports and trade. The aim of the festival is “developing tourist industry, culture exchange, trade promotion, and further opening up”. It attracts lots of tourists and businesspersons at home and abroad with the characteristics of Hainan folk customs and culture. It fulfils the function of “let the world know Hainan and let Hainan go to the world step by step”. In 1993, the General Secretary Jiang Zemin attended the Second Hainan International Coconut Festival and the Fifth Anniversary of Economic Zone of Hainan, and he delivered an important speech at the meeting.

Junpo Festival: After the Spring Festival, in the February of the lunar calendar, people in Hainan will be in Junpo Festival. Having Junpo Festival is a typical custom in Hainan. Junpo is divided into “Gong Period”and “Po Period”according to the gender of the consecrated gods. It is mainly a custom to offer sacrifices to ancestors and historic figures. Because of the difference between the consecrated gods, the “Gong Period”and “Po Period”of different villages are not the same. When there are Junpo Festival, people usually form a unit in a county or village. They will make large offering sacrifices, shoulder the ancestor of Gong and the ancestor of Po to look around the village, and invite friends home. The scale is very large, and the food is superior to that of Spring Festival. Dragon and lion team will go to every family to visit. In the evening, the families in the village collect money together to invite the opera troupe to perform Qiong Opera. The earliest record of the festival is in the Song Dynast. Now the grandest celebration is the “Po Period”in Xinpoliangsha, Qiongshan. Liangsha Po is Madame Xian in the Sui Dynasty. The “Po Period”of Liangsha is during February 9th-12th of the lunar calendar. At that time, the ancestor of Po will look around the village, and Taoist priests will present certain dance. It will fascinate you with some mysterious customs.

Flower Exchanging Festival: On the evening of every January 15th of the lunar calendar, Qiongshan District of Haikou is in the sea of flower. This is aunique Flower Exchanging Festival, which is held once a year. Flower Exchanging Festival is a folk festival in Qiongshan, and it has a long history. It is said that it began from the Tang Dynasty. At the very beginning, it exchanged incense, not flower, and it meant that the descendant would follow generation after generation. After the founding of the special zone in Hainan, traditional incense was taken place by flowers. The scale, range and the region are enlarged year by year. On January 15th of the lunar calendar, with all lights on, streams of people gather in Fucheng, Qiongshan. The streets are full of flowers. Many people in Haikou, especially the youths, holding flowers, walking along the Haifu Road, form flower exchanging groups. Different people have different understandings of the flower exchanging. Most of them want to bless each other by exchanging the flowers at the beginning of spring, while the youths take this festival to be a good chance to make friends. They want to use flowers as matchmaker to find their future spouse. Nowadays, the area of flower exchanging extends to the Evergreen Garden, and the influence of Flower Exchanging Festival will become larger and larger.