Student VIP Service  Sign in   Join now    
Quick Web Site:www.study666.com
Search by School Name     
  Home > China Feature  

Get a haircut on Er Yue Er for good luck

Bookmark and Share   print    email    Favorite    Transtlate   

Just a month after the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations began, here comes another tradition, to have a haircut on the second day of the second month, or Er Yue Er, to hope for good luck for the whole year.

China's barber shops are seeing one of their busiest days of the year Wednesday, Er Yue Er, also known as Longtaitou (dragon raises head) day on the lunar calendar this year.

Many Chinese hold the superstitious belief that getting a haircut when the "dragon also raises its head" means they will have a vigorous start to the new year, but if a person has a haircut during the first month of the lunar year, his maternal uncle will die.

As a result, barbershops stay open almost 18 hours a day in the pre-Lunar New Year rush for haircuts that lasts for at least two weeks.

While women like to spruce up for the holiday, even men with short hair like to get a trim up before the new year begins lest their hair grows too long before their next haircut, scheduled on the second day of the second lunar month.

A Chinese legend goes that a poor barber loved his uncle dearly but could not afford a decent new year's gift for him. So he gave his uncle a nice haircut that made the old man look many years younger. His uncle said it was the best gift he had ever had and wished to get a haircut every year from him.

After his uncle died, the barber missed him very much and cried every new year. Over the years, his "thinking of his uncle" (si jiu) was interpreted as "death of uncle" because in Chinese, their pronunciations are almost the same.

Cao Baoming, vice chief of China Society for the Study of Folk Literature and Art says the lucky haircut tradition comes from the Chinese's worship of the dragon, as people believe it symbolizes luck.

"The lucky tradition which goes back thousands of years reflects people's wish to have a happy life," Cao said.

Art

 more

China Beijing International Diet ...

Recently, The hit CCTV documentary, A Bite of China, shown at 10:40 ...

Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Jad...

At least 8,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors discovered a beautiful...

Longmen Grottoes

The Longmen Grottoes, located near Luoyang, Henan Province, are a tr...

Web Dictionary

在线翻译:

Martial Arts

Tai Chi Master Class Held in Moscow

MOSCOW, June 15, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Students learn from Shaolin ...

Celebriting 70 years' efforts in restoring Mogao...

Work is being carried out at the restoration site of cave No 98 a...

Hong Kong Children's Symphony performs in Seattle

Under the theme of Tribute to the Golden Age, a concert featuring a ...