Just like the 12 days of Christmas in western culture, the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities have their own version - 15 days of celebration traditionally. The 7th day is called "People Day", Ren Ri, and it is described as all human beings' birthday.
In the south of China, and practiced by Chinese originating from the south of China, the traditional dish of this day is Raw Fish Salad. As salads have to be tossed, everybody at the table stands up and using their chopsticks, tosses the salad mix together while shouting out auspicious Chinese words and well wishes. The most popular now will be "huat ah!" (to prosper). The higher the salad is tossed, the greater height one will scale up their career ladder.
The origins of Ren Ri or People Day is mainly mythological. The legend is associated with Nu Wa - (pronounced as Nwee Wah), the Chinese equivalent of Mother Earth. Nu Wa's top half of her torso takes the human form, while the lower half is that of a serpent or dragon.
Nu Wa is a legendary figure that represents the creation of life, the female fertility symbol versus the male symbol of Fu Xi. In an ancient depiction, the 2 characters are featured as inter-twined, just like Yin and Yang.
A well-known story about Nu Wa is the one about her mending the sky:
In Shen Zhen there is a giant sculpture of Nu Wa carrying the 5 color stone to mend the sky.
Nu Wa is attributed as the creator of mankind - and there was a sequence of the days that she created life on earth:
Day 1 - Chicken
Day 2 - Dog
Day 3 - Pig
Day 4 - Goat
Day 5 - Ox
Day 6 - Horse
and finally Day 7 - Humans or Ren (Chinese Pin Yin).
This is the legend associated with the 7th day of the Chinese New Year - Man's birthday. In different parts of China, this day is celebrated in different ways. In Guangzhou (old Canton), the practice is to climb hills and recite poetry. In Singapore and Malaysia, food gourmet feasts on raw fish salad. In other parts of China, another practice is to make decorative gold foil pieces that are pinned on the hair or on as decorations on Chinese wall dividers.
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