Folk Customs of Wuzhen

The first day of the first lunar month marks the Spring Festival, formerly known as "Guonian" (spending the New Year), the grandest traditional festival. The preceding day is New Year’s Eve, commonly called "Da Nian Ye". The whole family gathers for a reunion New Year’s Eve dinner. Newly married daughters-in-law dress in fine attire and present handmade shoes to elders in a ritual named "Cisui" (bidding farewell to the old year). Elders then give money to daughters-in-law and children, called "Yasui Qian" (lucky money to ward off bad luck). Rituals such as worshipping fortune gods and welcoming the Kitchen God are held that night.

On the early morning of the first day, families open their doors and set off firecrackers, burn incense and pay homage to heavenly deities — a custom named "Jietian" (welcoming heaven). Next they offer sacrifices to ancestors, then bow to senior family members in order of age. Later people visit relatives and friends to exchange New Year greetings, collectively referred to as "bainian" (paying New Year calls). In modern times, the kneeling salute has gradually been simplified and abandoned. Residents receive no guests on the first day; instead they walk toward the auspicious God of Joy’s direction. Visits between relatives and friends start from the second day and continue until the Lantern Festival.

The 15th day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival, commonly known as "Zhengyue Ban". Locals of Wuzhen follow the custom of walking across bridges. After dusk, people set out in groups of three to five, crossing at least ten bridges without repeating any route. This tradition originated from an ancient disaster-averting ritual mainly participated by women, dubbed "Walking Ten Bridges" or "Curing All Illnesses". In old days, women would dress up, each carrying an earthen pot used for boiling herbal medicine, and walk in procession. They tossed the pots into rivers while crossing bridges, believing this would keep them free of sickness and misfortune in the new year. In modern times, the act of throwing medicine pots faded away, evolving into a pure festive pastime and blessing ceremony.

Pure Brightness (Qingming) is one of the 24 solar terms. After the Tang Dynasty, it merged with the Cold Food Festival. Paying respects at ancestral tombs, washing hair and wearing flower ornaments, and going on spring excursions are widespread customs nationwide. Wuzhen boasts unique silkworm-rearing rituals tied to the festival. On the eve of Qingming, locals make green rice cakes, wrap zongzi, hold sacrificial ceremonies to ward off the White Tiger evil spirit, and draw bows and arrows with lime on doorsteps to pray for a thriving silkworm harvest. They boil river snails and pick out the meat with needles, a practice called "Tiaoqing".

Starting on Qingming Day, silkworm farmers from surrounding villages flock to Pujing Temple to burn incense and pray for good silkworm yields — this grand gathering is known as the Incense Market. Vendors crowd the area, and visitors stream in endlessly. Stalls and folk performance venues line open ground, while decorated racing boats and martial arts boats compete on waterways. The celebration lasts more than half a month, a carnival for water-town silkworm raisers.

Start of Summer is another solar term. On this day, locals taste fresh broad beans, salted duck eggs, green plums and cherries, a custom named "Tasting New Harvests". Farmers grind malt and alfalfa into flour to bake Start-of-Summer cakes, which are exchanged among relatives and friends. Children gather to carry bamboo tubes, pick broad beans, beg for cured meat, collect wild firewood and gather rice from many households. They build outdoor stoves to cook wild-fire rice, which folk legend prevents summer fatigue.

The weighing custom prevails widely south of the Yangtze River. Legend goes that during the Three Kingdoms period, A Dou, son of Liu Bei, was brought to the Eastern Wu on Start of Summer. Lady Sun weighed him personally and raised him with great care. Every subsequent Start of Summer, she weighed the boy again and sent letters to Zhuge Liang reporting his weight to show her devotion. The custom spread among common people and has endured through generations.

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Mid-Heaven Festival. Every household wraps zongzi to give to relatives and friends, a tradition said to commemorate Qu Yuan. Ancient Chinese regarded the Double Fifth Day as an "evil day" permeated by toxic vapors and wandering ghosts. Residents hung portraits of Zhong Kui, pasted Heavenly Master talismans, and hung mugwort, calamus, peach branches and garlic by doorways to repel evil. They ate yellow croaker, drank realgar wine and even consumed minor reptiles to counteract poison with poison. Children wore tiger-patterned clothes; women cut silk into small pouches filled with realgar to wear as symbols of vitality.

At noon, people burned camphor, angelica, turtle shell and common rue to create mosquito-repellent smoke. Realgar wine and lime water were splashed along walls and house corners to drive away insects and vermin. All these rituals served to dispel misfortune and evil.

The 25th day of the fifth lunar month is Dragon Division Day. Legend holds that rain-controlling dragons separate on this day to take charge of rainfall in their respective territories. Local public fire-fighting associations, known as Water Dragon Societies, hold grand fire drill parades as usual. Teams from each neighborhood assemble in full gear carrying complete fire-fighting equipment on open riverbank ground. Some premixed colourful pigments into water tanks and hoses. At the sound of gongs and drums, all water cannons spray water skyward simultaneously, creating a spectacular cascade of multicoloured spray. Men, women and children gather to watch and cheer, with teams judged and awarded prizes for faster, farther water jets.

The sixth day of the sixth lunar month falls amid scorching midsummer heat. A local Wuzhen proverb states: "On the sixth day of the sixth month, the sun can harden duck eggs solid." It is ideal weather to air damp books, textiles and grain. The Song Dynasty designated this day Heaven-Grant Day, originating from a fabricated dream story told by Emperor Zhenzong. Later generations found the tale tedious and shifted the traditional Book-Airing Day from the seventh day of the seventh lunar month to this date. Literary families air their book collections, temple monks unfold scriptures to sun, and ordinary residents hang out clothing.

There is also a custom of bathing cats and dogs in rivers to ward off lice and moths. Townsfolk boil hot water to bathe children, and women wash their hair on this day. The widespread tradition of eating wontons may derive from the scene of mixed creatures bathing together in water.

The 15th day of the seventh lunar month is the Ghost Festival, commonly called "Qiyue Ban". Taoist temples hold sacrificial rituals to pray for blessings, while Buddhist monasteries host Ullambana Ceremonies. Both faiths conduct religious services, and every household offers sacrifices to ancestors, earning it the name Ghost Festival.

The custom of releasing river lanterns on festival nights became popular after the Southern Song Dynasty. Locals craft various flower-shaped lanterns woven from bamboo strips and covered with paper, with lit candles set on wooden bases. Others paste colourful paper into boat lanterns filled with lamp wicks and oil for burning. After dark, people carry lanterns to the waterfront or row boats out onto the river to set them adrift. Countless flickering candle lights drift along the currents, forming a magnificent sight. Buddhists call this ritual "Universal Salvation by Mercy Boats", while Taoists name it "Lighting the Way for Spirits in the Underworld". For ordinary townsfolk, it is simply a joyful pastime.