The color red is of great significance for people in South Fujian Province and it is traditionally used as a symbol of happiness and good luck.

When festival comes, red is found everywhere in Xiamen. During the Chinese New Year, people paste red couplet on both sides of the doors. A barrel of rice with red spring flower on are also prepared on the New Year’s Eve. For the pronunciation of the word “spring” sounds like “surplus” in dialect, the spring flower symbolizes the abundance of harvest or prosperity.  Meanwhile, the red dates and red flower are usually decorated when people make “Fagao” (a steamed cake). On the New Year’s Eve, children were given New year gifts of cash wrapped in red paper, but now the money are usually stuffed in the red envelop with “Gong Xi Fa Cai” in gold letters on.

Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the Lunar Calendar. It is almost customary for the local residents to have sweet dumplings on lunar June 15th, or during the annual the winter Solstice Festival and the Lantern Festival.

The traditional Chinese wedding was even full of red color in the past. The red couplets were pasted on windows and doors at wedding ceremonies. When a baby turns one month old, the family would prepare the red cake called “Moon Round”, the oil rice and the two red eggs for relatives and close friends to celebrate the first month of the baby’s life. for the birthday of the elderly, besides the birthday peaches and red tortoise cake, the birthday couplets are also prepared, which are composed of a pair of poetry lines such as“Heaven attains greater age and people live to longer year; spring fills the earth and every hearth procures more happiness”.

From:www.xm.gov.cn/english/