What festival is February 2 in Dongguan?

Dongkeng in Dongguan is a special traditional folk festival. Men, women, children and foreign guests have taken to the streets to splash and shoot water for fun, hoping for good luck in the year. This is the "Prostitution Festival" (also known as "Water Shooting Festival" and "Happy Festival") on the second day of the second lunar month.

Dongkeng's "Prostitution Festival" originated from the phenomenon of "prostitution" (that is, selling labor) in Tangchun Village in Ming Dynasty. At that time, some young people who didn't have their own fields took to the streets on the second day of the second lunar month, wearing hats and coarse towels as a sign of "selling themselves", waiting for the rich man to hire them. Rich people with fields also came to Tangchun Village on this day to select young adults who sold themselves for a year.

Later, it is said that some gods descended from the sky on the "Prostitution Festival" and came to Dongkeng to give alms to all beings. So the "Prostitution Festival" spread more and more, and the more it spread, the more magical it became. Merchants from far and near gather in Dongkeng on the second day of February to pray for the blessing of the gods. When they leave, they have to buy something to take home to show that they have met the gods, so it is also called "Fairy Festival".

Prostitution Festival has been going on for hundreds of years. With the changes of the times, the "Prostitution Festival" has gradually lost its original meaning, but people still retain the tradition of going to the city to go to market on this day. In the early days of liberation, people also called "Prostitution Festival" "Turning over Festival". In the early 1990s, "Prostitution Festival" evolved into "Water Shooting Festival" and "Happy Festival".

In recent years, Dongkeng people have preserved this cultural tradition with strong local characteristics, followed the ancient name of "Prostitution Festival" and given it a new meaning. This traditional festival will gradually develop into a large-scale investment attraction and business activity festival of "the government sets up a stage and sings opera in economy and trade".