New Year traditions lost

Tourists are seen on a street in Ciqikou Town, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Feb 20, 2015. According to local department, the town has received more than 90,000 tourists during the first two days of Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. Some regulations have been carried out to control the number of tourists. [Photo/Xinhua]

Besides the nationwide festive revelry, the Spring Festival is another chance to witness and reflect on the waning of tradition, says an editorial in thepaper.cn.

Spending the Lunar New Year with family members is viewed by many as a traditional custom. However, a lot of New Year traditions that used to be deeply stamped in their memory have vanished with people's rapidly changing lifestyles.

For example, lantern shows and visiting relatives and friends are still popular practices, but that cannot hide the fact we have lost and are losing many of our Spring Festival traditions.

Despite the bustling and busy festive business, the joyful Spring Festival of the past is now only a remote memory preserved in our minds.

Some people still remember and look forward to the joy of stocking up on treats for Spring Festival when people were poorer and such goods scarce. But this kind of feeling has disappeared with the prosperous economic development over the past decades. For many, Spring Festival is no longer viewed as a special time for the long-anticipated consumption of rare luxuries, instead it is more and more being viewed as just another common public holiday.