The Spring Festival of 1843 coincides closely with the timing of this year’s celebration – its first day of the first lunar month fell on January 30 in the Gregorian calendar.

It marks the first Spring Festival for British missionary William Charles Milne (known as Mei Weicha in Chinese; 1815-1863) after his arrival in Ningbo. He documented his observations of the festivities in a detailed diary, depicting such traditions as worshiping the Kitchen God, making Nian Gao (rice cake), staying up on New Year's Eve and paying New Year’s visits. His informative “report” was published a year later in the English journal “The Chinese Repository” in Hong Kong.

This diary, part of his work “Seven Months’ Residence at Ningbo”, was later compiled into Milne’s work Life in China, published in London and New York in 1857.

To early westerners, Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival are uniquely fascinating. Description of the Chinese New Year can be found in the work of American and British expatriates, including Michael Simpson Culbertson (1819-1862), John Gilbert Reid (1857-1927), John

Livingston Nevius (1829—1893) and his wife Helen Sanford Coan (1833-1910). UMC Digital Galleries even preserves a rare photograph of the Ningbo Lantern Festival from the early 20th century.

The Kitchen God Worship

Both Milne and Culbertson documented the ritual of "worshipping the Kitchen God."

In Milne’s diary entry for January 29, 1843, he described the Kitchen God as a deity represented by a small statue or a rough drawing placed in a niche over the oven. “He is washed on this day (the 23rd day of the last lunar month), and the soot that has collected upon him in the course of the twelve months is cleared off. He is supposed to ascend to heaven the next day, to join the council of the gods, and to render an account of the yearly proceedings that he has observed in the family. He is not returned to his usual position until the last day of the year.” Gods were believed to visit the mortal world from the 24th of the twelfth lunar month onward. On this account, houses and premises had to remain tidy. The operation of cleansing the apartments was called tán chin, “wiping off dust”.

Culbertson, meanwhile, regarded the God of the Kitchen as a “spy” in his work Darkness in the Flowery Land published in 1857. "He is feared rather than respected, and is looked upon more as a spy than a protector. Near the close of the year — the 23rd of the twelfth month — he takes his departure from earth for a short time, in order to make to the powers above his report of the family transactions during the year. On his day, therefore, special honors are paid to him, in order to secure a favorable report."

"A paper image of the god is burnt in the pile of mock money, and thus he ascends to heaven,” interpreted Culberson, “On the last day of the year he returns from his errand, and care is taken to have his shrine newly decorated, and to provide a new image to receive him, so that he may begin the new year in good humor”. Aside from New Year rituals, the god was worshiped on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month — that is at the new and full moons.

As the year came to a close, people offered sacrifices to the “tutelar deities” along with the firing of crackers. The practice was named sié nien, "thanking the year," or sung nien, "attending the year out," implying acknowledgement of thanks for divine blessings of the past year. On the other hand, the term tsz’ sui, “parting with the year”, in Milne’s record, was applied among friends for congratulations.

Chinese New Year’s Eve

January 29, 1843 marks the Chinese New Year’s Eve.

As recorded in Milne’s diary, “this is the last day of the year … Among these preparatory arrangements, the working up of the nien káu or tsieh-tsieh káu, ‘yearly or season cakes,’ is the first.”

Specifically, the cake was a composition of rice, flour and water. The dough had to be kneaded by hand with a great deal of force. It was then put upon a tray, ready for reduction into cakes of various dimensions and figures. The bakers and confectioners had their hands full.

“Where there are families, the showing off and arranging these cakes occasions a very gay and lively scene. The entire household is set to work, especially the younger branches of it; and fun and frolic enliven the busy circle. In large families, men and women are called in to aid in the preparation; and the quantity stored up is often immense. The forms and devices into which this rice-dough is put up are innumerable, and each piece is impressed with a stamp or decorated with the red pencil. It is not baked, but when eaten it is sodden in hot water and wine with a little sugar.”

In the dairy, Milne unfolded the vibrant Chinese New Year's Eve in Ningbo 182 years ago. "The city has been one scene of life and activity."

“People running from one shop to another paying their debts, or collecting arrears; crowds departing to the country to rejoin their families, or carrying back to their rural cottages, the purchases they have made for the approaching festivities; while thousands have returned to town to spend their holydays with relatives and friends.”

“The retail houses have been overflowing with customers, as it is an object with the sellers to clear off their goods as speedily as possible, and with the purchasers to supply their wants at an unusually moderate rate. The quantity of money that circulates during these 24 hours must be enormous; and it is attempted in many cases to prolong the closing day, until an hour unusually late … The bazaar is, on this day, and on no other during the year, kept open, illuminated, and bustling even up to midnight, and sometimes beyond.”