REDSTAR Hangzhou June 2020

/ CULTURE // 广 告 • 文 化
LOST CHINESE
TRADITIONS
CHINA IS WELL KNOWN FOR ITS LONG HISTORY,
UNIQUE CUISINE, AND BEAUTIFUL CULTURE. BUT
HOW WELL DO WE KNOW ITS OLD TRADITIONS?
By Turaeva Ziyodakhon
STAY HOME ON THE
3RD DAY OF NEW YEAR
Chinese people believed that the third day of
the Spring Festival is unlucky. They used to call
this day "Scarlet Dog Day" ( 赤 狗 日 ). This kind of
belief came from an old legend about Scarlet Dog.
In this legend, Scarlet Dog was the god of anger,
and whoever met him would face bad luck. That is
why Chinese people did not go out and did not
have guests in their houses on that day. They
just stayed at home for the whole day. However,
this tradition is not in practice anymore and
modern Chinese people go wherever they
want on the third day of the Spring Festival.
DOG'S EYE
Chinese people believed that dogs can see
ghosts and phantoms. A dog that howling
meant that it is seeing a ghost or a phantom, and
if the dog howls continuously it was considered
as a prediction of oncoming death. Also, Chinese
people also believed that, the fluid from the eyes
of a dog can give humans the ability to see souls of
their ancestors. Smearing the fluid on his/her eyes
gave them the ability to see the supernatural
world. However, it is believed that smearing
the fluid in the eyes of ordinary people would
cause their death from the shock of seeing
the afterlife. In my opinion, it is good that this
kind of tradition is not in practice anymore.
26 myredstar.com