Rain Water Customs

“拉保保” is an old folk custom of Sichuan, in which “保保” means a ritual godfather. Choosing a godfather on the day of Rain Water draws on the auspicious idea that “rain and dew nourish growth easily”, and the purpose is to help children grow up smoothly, safely, and in good health.

In Guanghan, Sichuan, this practice has developed into a community-wide festival known as the Baobao Festival. On the day of Rain Water, parents hoping to find a godfather carry baskets containing wine, food, incense, candles, and ritual paper offerings and move through the crowds with their children, looking for a suitable person. Once someone is chosen, they stop that person and ask the child to perform the ritual recognition. The person who has been “pulled in” is traditionally not supposed to refuse, but should accept gladly and give the child an affectionate nickname carrying a blessing. From then on, the two families address one another as ritual kin and maintain an ongoing relationship.

In Hakka regions such as southern Jiangxi, western Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi, a closely related custom known as “撞拜寄” is also widespread. On Rain Water, some women lead their young children by the hand and wait for the first passerby to appear. Whoever comes first—regardless of age or gender—is stopped and asked to accept the child as ritual kin. Unlike a prearranged godparent relationship, 撞拜寄 depends entirely on chance, giving the encounter a strong sense of fate and serendipity. In modern cities, the custom has become much more informal, with friends or colleagues sometimes recognizing one another’s children as ritual kin and gathering mainly during major holidays.

The custom of 拉保保 has a long history and can be traced to older folk traditions in which parents sought divine or socially powerful protection for their children. In the past, families often consulted deities or divination to assess a child’s destiny; in order to help the child grow safely, it became common to “find a godfather,” in the hope that the godfather’s good fortune and vitality would help carry the child through childhood. Rain Water falls precisely at the moment when all living things begin to stir and life starts expanding again, so choosing this time to establish ritual kinship draws on the auspicious imagery of spring rain nourishing all things and life beginning to grow.

The practice therefore reflects two overlapping forms of traditional wisdom. On one level, it is a psychological projection of folk belief: the hope that a vulnerable child can gain protection from an outside force. On another, it is a social strategy by which families expand their networks beyond blood relations through ritual kinship and strengthen sources of support outside the immediate household. The Baobao Festival of Guanghan is said to have originated during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty and now has a history of nearly three hundred years. Today it has developed into a large public festival combining folk-custom displays, commercial exchange, entertainment, and community celebration.

The Baobao Festival in Guanghan, Sichuan is held every year around Rain Water and is one of the best places to experience this tradition. Visitors may observe the activities on site and, in some contexts, even take part. In Hakka villages, 撞拜寄 still survives in certain places, and specific arrangements can be learned through local cultural institutions.

“占稻色” is an old agricultural divination custom found in the rice-growing regions of South China. The phrase literally means “divining the condition of the rice,” and the prediction is made by dry-roasting glutinous rice grains until they burst open. A good 成色, or “condition,” is taken to indicate a high yield, while a poor one suggests a weak harvest. The judgment depends on how fully the grains burst: the more white blossoms of popped rice that appear, the better the year’s rice harvest is expected to be; the fewer that burst, the poorer the harvest is thought to be, with higher rice prices likely to follow.

In the Hakka region of Xunwu in southern Jiangxi, people also used the weather on the sixteenth and seventeenth days of the first lunar month around Rain Water to divine the early-rice harvest. A proverb says: “雨打残灯碗，早禾一把杆；雨打上元宵，早禾压断腰。” If the exact transition into Rain Water falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival, then a plentiful early-rice harvest is expected; if Rain Water falls on the sixteenth or seventeenth and it rains, however, the early-rice harvest is believed likely to be poor.

The custom existed by the Song dynasty at the latest. From Song times onward, communities in the Wu and Yue regions practiced “卜谷”, divining grain, on the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the first lunar month. Fan Chengda of the Southern Song noted in the *Wujun Zhi* that people “爆糯谷于釜中，名孛娄，亦曰米花”—popped glutinous rice grains in a pot, calling them *bolou* or “rice flowers.” At the end of the Yuan and beginning of the Ming, Lou Yuanli wrote in *Tianjia Wuxing*: “雨水节，烧干镬，以糯稻爆之，谓之孛罗花，占稻色。”

Before the Song dynasty, China’s economic center had long remained in the Yellow River basin; from the Song onward, as economic gravity shifted southward, rice agriculture increasingly became a central component of Chinese agricultural civilization. Rain Water coincides with the crucial period of sowing and raising seedlings for early rice, and the adequacy of rainfall at this time could directly affect the year’s harvest. Using 占稻色 as a form of reassurance was therefore a cultural way of responding to uncertainty in nature.

Over time, the divinatory function of popping glutinous rice gradually faded, and the practice evolved into the year-end preparation of popped rice used as filling for 煎堆. Qu Dajun wrote in the Qing work *Guangdong Xinyu*: “广州之俗，岁终以烈火爆开糯谷，名曰炮谷。以为煎堆心馅。” Here 炮谷 refers to popped grain, which remains a standard festive food among Hakka communities today. Because “花”, “blossom,” resembles “发”, “to prosper,” in sound, the bursting of the grains also came to suggest wealth and flourishing. In some Hakka areas, popped rice is still offered to the Heavenly Official, the Jade Emperor, and local earth deities in prayers for favorable weather and abundant harvests.

Around Rain Water, visitors to Hakka areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, and neighboring regions may encounter traditional 占稻色 activities. Local households roast glutinous grains using older methods, and visitors may watch or sometimes try the process themselves. The popped grain can be eaten immediately, making this one of the most direct ways to experience the relationship between seasonal wisdom and agricultural culture.

A folk saying goes: “雨水有雨庄稼好，大春小春一片宝。” As one of the most important solar terms at the beginning of spring farming, Rain Water is traditionally regarded in southern China as a “time fit for cultivation.” After Rain Water, the harsh, snowy winter has already passed in most regions, while rainfall begins and gradually increases; spring plowing, spring irrigation, sowing, seedling raising, fertilization, frost protection, fruit-tree grafting, and other agricultural tasks therefore begin in succession. Another farmer’s proverb says: “立春天渐暖，雨水送肥忙。” Around Rain Water, farmers in many southern regions also hold rituals honoring the Dragon King, praying for favorable winds and timely rain throughout the year.

Appropriate rainfall during Rain Water is crucial to crop growth, and the custom reflects the way agrarian culture interprets seasonal timing. Through long-term observation, ancient Chinese farmers recognized a close relationship between rainfall around Rain Water and agricultural production for the year, giving rise to experience-based sayings such as “雨水有雨庄稼好.” The practice embodies the central principle of traditional Chinese agriculture: “following Heaven and responding to the proper season.” Human cultivation must remain synchronized with the rhythms of the natural world.

During Rain Water, visitors can travel to rural areas in southern China to observe preparations for spring farming. Many agricultural tourism parks organize seasonal experiences at this time, allowing visitors to try sowing, seedling raising, and related farm work.

回娘屋, returning to one’s natal home, is one of the most widespread Rain Water customs in western Sichuan. When the solar term arrives, married daughters are expected to return home to visit their parents regardless of distance, bringing gifts with them. Women who have already had children must bring “罐罐肉”, a jarred dish prepared by slowly braising pig’s trotters with Snow Mountain soybeans, kelp, and other ingredients in an earthenware pot. Once cooked, the mouth of the jar is sealed with red paper and red cord and presented respectfully to the parents as an expression of gratitude for their upbringing and care. Daughters may also bring rattan chairs and other gifts, wishing their parents health, longevity, and a peaceful old age.

Women who have remained childless for a long time may receive a pair of red trousers sewn by their mothers during the visit and wear them close to the body; according to folk belief, this could help them conceive sooner. The practice reflects the strong traditional emphasis on fertility while also revealing one of the most intimate and tender dimensions of the emotional bond between mother and daughter.

The saying “雨水节，回娘屋” refers to a long-established folk tradition unique to western Sichuan. Rain Water falls at the transition from winter to spring, before agricultural work becomes fully busy, making it an appropriate time for a married daughter to return home and visit her parents. Traditional culture also linked Rain Water with fertility: spring rain nourishes all living things and brings vitality, just as a daughter’s childbirth was understood as continuing the family line.

The custom became especially prominent in western Sichuan because of the region’s strong lineage traditions and deeply rooted family ethics. The jar of braised meat is sealed with red paper and red cord: red symbolizes auspiciousness and celebration, while sealing the jar symbolically “preserves” gratitude and blessings inside before they are presented to the parents. It is a particularly delicate example of the folk idea of conveying emotion through material gifts.

The custom survives in western Sichuan today. On Rain Water, it is still possible to see married daughters returning with husbands and children, carrying jars of meat to visit their parents. Visitors to the region may ask local families about the practice, while some folk-culture villages organize reenactments or participatory experiences around the solar term.

接寿 is an important family rite of Rain Water through which a son-in-law expresses filial respect and blessings toward his parents-in-law. On this day, the daughter and son-in-law visit together and traditionally bring two principal gifts. The first is a pair of rattan chairs wrapped with a red cotton band one zhang and two chi long, a practice called “接寿”, symbolizing a long “bond of longevity” and conveying the wish that the parents-in-law may live to a great age. The second is 罐罐肉, the jarred dish of pig’s trotters braised with Snow Mountain soybeans, kelp, and other ingredients, sealed with red paper and red cord before being presented.

If the son-in-law is newly married, the parents-in-law may return the gesture by giving him an umbrella. On a practical level, the umbrella protects him from wind and rain while traveling; symbolically, it expresses the wish that his path through life may be smooth and safe. The umbrella may also be associated with spreading branches and leaves, blessing the young household with many descendants.

The “接” in 接寿 carries the sense of receiving, continuing, and carrying forward longevity, expressing the younger generation’s deep wish for the health and long life of their elders. The practice belongs directly to the broader tradition of Chinese filial ethics. In agrarian society, once a daughter married she became a member of her husband’s household and had fewer opportunities to see her natal family. Rain Water falls at the transition from winter to spring, just before farming begins in earnest, so a son-in-law’s visit with gifts served both as gratitude to the parents who had raised his wife and as an important way of maintaining emotional ties between the two households.

The red cotton band is one zhang and two chi long, symbolizing the twelve months of the year and thus longevity in every month; the rattan chair carries the meaning of “sitting in enjoyment of long life.” The jar of meat sealed with red paper and cord is practical for preserving the food, but symbolically it also “seals” good wishes inside.

The custom continues in many places today. On Rain Water, married sons-in-law may prepare red cotton bands and jars of braised meat for their parents-in-law; newly married couples may also include an umbrella as part of the exchange. The custom is easy to practice and can be adapted by any family.

Around Rain Water, people in northern China traditionally pay special attention to eating shepherd’s purse. At this time the plant has only just begun to emerge and is at its most tender, so people gather and eat it as one of the first fresh wild greens of spring. It can be served cold, used as dumpling or bun filling, cooked in soup, or simmered into porridge. Folk tradition holds that eating shepherd’s purse around Rain Water can dispel wind, ward off harmful influences, clear internal heat, and remove toxins; more simply, it is also one of the first tastes of spring after winter.

Shepherd’s purse has an exceptionally long history as a food in China. The *Book of Songs · Bei Feng · Gufeng* already contains the line “谁谓荼苦，其甘如荠”, showing that the plant was familiar as an edible wild green in the pre-Qin period. Because it is hardy and turns green very early in spring, it once served as an important famine-relief food during the difficult seasonal gap before new crops became available.

Su Shi praised shepherd’s purse highly, saying that although it did not belong to the conventional five flavors, it possessed a beauty “beyond flavor.” Lu You of the Southern Song likewise wrote: “残雪初消荠满园，糁羹珍美胜羔豚”, judging shepherd’s-purse soup even more delicious than lamb. A folk saying declares: “到了三月三，荠菜当灵丹。” The belief that “春食荠菜赛仙丹”, eating shepherd’s purse in spring is better than an immortal elixir, still circulates today. Shepherd’s purse is therefore not simply a seasonal ingredient, but also carries the broader dietary tradition of “biting spring” and the Chinese principle of “not eating foods out of season.”

Fresh shepherd’s purse can often be bought in markets and supermarkets around Rain Water. Dumplings filled with shepherd’s purse and pork and shepherd’s-purse tofu soup are among the most common home-style dishes. Urban residents may also gather wild shepherd’s purse in parks or field margins, provided the plant is correctly identified and the area is free from pesticide contamination. Some restaurants offer seasonal shepherd’s-purse menus during this period.

In southern China, Rain Water is traditionally a season for eating spring bamboo shoots. These are shoots dug after Beginning of Spring and are prized for their thick bodies, jade-white interior, tender texture, and fresh flavor, earning them a place among the celebrated “Eight Treasures of the Mountains.” Around Rain Water, the shoots have only just broken through the soil and are at their most tender; once this brief season passes, they quickly grow toward bamboo and become tougher and more fibrous. Southern households therefore cook them in many ways—stir-fried, stewed, boiled, or braised—with dishes such as 腌笃鲜 and 油焖笋 regarded as classic seasonal preparations.

Bamboo shoots have been eaten in China since very early times. The *Book of Songs* already contains the line “其蔌维何？维笋及蒲”, indicating that bamboo shoots were served at elite banquets in the pre-Qin period. Bai Juyi wrote in his Tang poem *Eating Bamboo Shoots*: “置之炊甑中，与饭同时熟。紫箨坼故锦，素肌擘新玉。” He compared the cooked shoot emerging from its purple husk to new jade, praising its whiteness and tenderness.

During the Song dynasty, the monk Zanning devoted an entire work, the *Sunpu*, to nearly one hundred kinds of bamboo shoots and their culinary uses, showing the importance of the ingredient in traditional food culture. Su Shi famously wrote: “宁可食无肉，不可居无竹。无肉令人瘦，无竹令人俗。” The line praises the moral elegance associated with bamboo, while also indirectly evoking the pleasure of its edible shoots.

Eating spring bamboo shoots at Rain Water is therefore both an expression of the philosophy of eating according to the season and a sensory ritual of welcoming spring: to bite into a tender shoot is, in a sense, to bite into the season itself. Spring bamboo shoots are also rich in dietary fiber and various trace elements, fitting traditional spring dietary principles of reducing sour flavors and increasing sweet, mild foods.

During Rain Water, spring bamboo shoots appear in large quantities in markets across southern China. They can be used to prepare 腌笃鲜, a slow stew of cured pork, fresh pork, and spring bamboo shoots, or 油焖笋, oil-braised shoots. Famous bamboo-growing regions such as Anji in Zhejiang and Jian’ou in Fujian sometimes organize spring-shoot digging activities in which visitors can harvest shoots themselves and cook them on site.

Around Rain Water, many regions of China have a custom of eating popped grain. People place glutinous rice grains or maize in a pan and roast them until they burst open, then eat the crisp, fragrant result. Popcorn is one of the most audibly distinctive seasonal snacks associated with Rain Water, marked by the sharp sound of the grains bursting. In some southern regions, making and sharing popped grain around this time remains an important form of festive entertainment.

Popcorn in China dates back to the Song dynasty, and the earliest forms were made by popping glutinous rice. Fan Chengda wrote in the Southern Song *Wujun Zhi*: “爆糯谷于釜中，名孛娄，亦曰米花.” By the Yuan dynasty, the practice was already widespread. The custom of eating popped grain around Rain Water is closely connected with 占稻色, because the original purpose of popping glutinous rice was to divine the year’s harvest. As that divinatory function gradually weakened, popped grain became a simple seasonal food.

Because “花”, blossom, resembles “发”, to prosper, in sound, the bursting grains also became associated with the hope of wealth and advancement. Qu Dajun wrote in the Qing *Guangdong Xinyu*: “广州之俗，岁终以烈火爆开糯谷，名曰炮谷，以为煎堆心馅。” The transformation of popcorn from a divination tool into an ordinary festive snack vividly illustrates how folk customs can move from ritual magic into everyday life. Around Rain Water, the sudden “pop” of bursting grain can be heard both as the closing sound of winter and as the announcement of spring.

Around Rain Water, traditional popcorn vendors can still sometimes be found in northern streets and alleys, where visitors may watch kernels burst dramatically inside old-style popping machines and buy the finished snack. Popcorn can also be made at home in a pan, with attention to heat and safety. Popped glutinous rice is sold in some southern supermarkets as well.

In some northern regions, Rain Water is associated with eating dragon-whisker cakes, a traditional pastry shaped like the fine whiskers of a dragon. Golden in color, fragrant, sweet, and crisp, the pastry is made by repeatedly pulling and folding dough until it forms strands as thin as hair, which are then fried. Some regions also make dragon-whisker candy, in which sugar syrup is stretched into extremely fine threads with a light, crisp, and sweet texture.

People traditionally believed that eating dragon-whisker cakes during Rain Water could gain the protection of the Dragon King, bringing safety and health to the household and favorable winds and timely rain to the year.

According to folk legend, the custom originated during the reign of Wu Zetian in the Tang dynasty. After she became emperor, the Jade Emperor was said to have become enraged and ordered the Dragon King not to send rain to the human world for three years. Unable to bear the suffering of the people under drought, the Dragon King defied the order and sent a heavy rain, after which the Jade Emperor cast him down to the mortal realm. To commemorate the Dragon King’s compassion, people began making foods shaped like dragon whiskers during Rain Water as an expression of gratitude.

The legend cannot be historically verified, but it reflects the widespread Chinese folk belief in the Dragon King as the deity responsible for rain and also expresses gratitude for the gifts of nature. In Tang times, noodles were known as “汤饼” or “不托” and were popular both at court and among ordinary people. By the Song dynasty, Meng Yuanlao’s *Dongjing Menghua Lu* recorded many different noodle and pastry-making techniques, showing how highly developed traditional flour-based food culture had already become.

Eating dragon-whisker cakes at Rain Water therefore expresses both gratitude for the Dragon King’s rain and hopes for a plentiful harvest in the new year. The practice also echoes the customs surrounding “龙抬头”, the day when “the dragon raises its head,” together forming part of the seasonal expression of dragon belief in Chinese folk culture.

Some long-established pastry shops in Beijing, Hebei, and neighboring areas make dragon-whisker cakes and dragon-whisker candy around Rain Water. Recipes can also be followed at home, although pulling the dough into very fine strands requires skill and beginners may prefer simplified versions. Some folk-culture villages organize traditional pastry-making experiences between Beginning of Spring and Rain Water.

The traditional Lantern Festival falls close to Rain Water. Also known as the Shangyuan Festival, Yuanxi, or the Lantern Festival, it is the first major festival after the Spring Festival. On this night, countless colored lanterns are lit as people go outdoors to admire the moon, view lanterns and fireworks, solve riddles, eat yuanxiao or tangyuan together, watch dragon and lion dances, walk on stilts, perform yangge dances, and celebrate family reunion. The word “闹” in “闹元宵” captures the exuberant atmosphere of public festivity: crowds flow through lantern displays, drums and gongs thunder, fireworks rise into the sky, and all kinds of performances compete for attention. From imperial courts to villages, from large cities to rural communities, the entire landscape becomes a sea of celebration. Only after the Lantern Festival is the New Year season traditionally considered truly complete and the new year fully underway.

The origins of the Lantern Festival can be traced to the Han dynasty. According to tradition, Emperor Wen of Han marked the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to celebrate Zhou Bo’s suppression of the Lü clan and would leave the palace that night to share festivities with the people, eventually establishing the date as the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wu, sacrifices to the deity Taiyi were fixed on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. When Sima Qian created the *Taichu Calendar*, the Lantern Festival was already treated as an important festival.

The celebration flourished greatly during the Sui and Tang dynasties. Chang’an under the Tang normally enforced a night curfew, but for three nights around the Lantern Festival the public was allowed to travel freely after dark to view lanterns. Under the Song, the celebrations became even more elaborate. The *Dongjing Menghua Lu* gives detailed descriptions of the magnificent lantern displays of Bianjing, with colored light, gold, brocade, and ornament reflecting against one another.

Over more than two thousand years, the Lantern Festival absorbed elements from ancient sacrificial rites, Buddhist lamp offerings, and the Daoist Shangyuan tradition, becoming one of the most representative traditional festivals of the Chinese people. Eating tangyuan or yuanxiao expresses the wish for “圆圆满满”, completeness and family unity, and serves as the final reunion meal of the New Year season. Because the Lantern Festival and Rain Water fall so close together, the solar term acquires an additional layer of festive atmosphere.

Major cities across China organize lantern fairs, riddle events, fireworks displays, and other celebrations during the Lantern Festival. Well-known destinations include the Xi’an City Wall Lantern Festival, the Qinhuai Lantern Festival in Nanjing, the Yuyuan Garden Lantern Festival in Shanghai, and the Zigong Lantern Festival. Dragon and lion dances, stilt walking, yangge performances, and other folk arts are also common. Eating yuanxiao or tangyuan—traditionally “shaken” into shape in the north and “wrapped” in the south—is the most widespread form of participation.