BEIJING, March 6 -- Friday was a normal working day for most Shenzhen residents, except the more than 750 families living in the Yu'er community in Shekou district.

    Two days before the Lantern Festival (the first full moon night of the lunar year), residents of this fishing village were celebrating their own big day -- the traditional Kaiding Festival.

    "My family migrated from Meilong Township, Shanwei in eastern Guangdong to Shekou during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and the Kaiding Festival is a tradition we brought along," said 74-year-old Liu Cheng, a village resident.

    During the festival, village residents prepare a dish called Kaidingcha, made from a variety of ingredients, including tea.

    Liu's two daughters, housewives in Hong Kong, were in Shenzhen to help their parents prepare the dish for the festival.

    "We used to prepare four to five kinds of seafood, stir-fry them, and serve them along with puffed rice and tea. I had to go with my mother to the Great Nanshan Mountain to pick wild tea to save money," recalled Lin Xiuli, Liu's wife.

    Far more affluent now than when she was a child, Lin prepared Kaidingcha using more than 40 ingredients like shrimp, squid, scallop, chicken, sausage, peanuts, and vegetables for this year's Kaiding Festival. However, instead of tea, she used stewed pork soup. "Tea is a little bitter. We have long used pork soup to replace it to make the food taste better."

    Each household prepares around 100 bowls of Kaidingcha on this day to treat friends, relatives and sometimes, curious strangers.

    Village residents believe that the more people they entertain with Kaidingcha during the festival, the more prosperity they will enjoy in the lunar new year. On the other hand, those who eat more bowls of Kaidingcha will be blessed as well.

    The festival is called "Kaiding" because it was originally meant to celebrate the birth of boys ("ding" in Chinese). The celebration was only for boys and attended by men in the past. Today, baby girls are also included in the celebration, as the concept of gender equality has become widely accepted.

    "The festival dates back to the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), when the Mongolian rulers were vigilant against Han people. They stipulated that 10 households could share only one knife and forbade meetings. Our ancestors started this celebration to cover up secret meetings," said Wu Yiqiao, Party chief of the Yu'er community.

    In time, the festival was fixed for the 13th of the first lunar month.

    The community also organized an outdoor party, a performance and a free movie for the residents Friday.

    The Kaiding Festival has recently been included on a list of intangible cultural heritage in Shenzhen.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily)