- As China struggles to maintain marriage rates, Chinese people are taking aim at superstitions.
- A letter asking the government to speak out against folk beliefs went viral on Wednesday.
- She warned those involved about the “Year of Widows,” which is believed to bring bad luck to those who get married this year.
China is debating whether the government should warn against the myth that 2024 is a bad year to get married, as it worries about its shrinking and aging population.
“There are folk rumors that this year is the ‘Year of Widows’ and is not suitable for marriage,” said a letter to China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs that went viral on Chinese social media on Wednesday. “This is a significant departure from common sense and scientific common sense.”
It is not clear who sent the message on January 11 through the ministry’s forum, which accepts open questions from the public. They called on Beijing to issue a public notice advising citizens not to let superstitions influence their life decisions.
And it appears officials are listening. “We are taking note of the suggestions you have raised,” the ministry wrote on Monday.
The response sparked a debate about the legitimacy of folk beliefs, with the topic receiving more than 300 million views on Weibo, China’s version of X.
This belief involves the absence of a “Risshun” day, also known as Risshun, at the beginning of the lunar year.
This year’s first day of spring falls on February 4th, before the Chinese New Year begins on February 10th. In other words, next year will not include the first day of spring.
Such a lunar year is sometimes called the “Year of the Widow.” This is because ancient superstitions associate spring with masculine energy, and it is believed that getting married during such a period will bring bad luck and divorce.
“What year is there no widow? What does it have to do with spring?” Beijing-based blogger Crying, Gaggling, Laughing wrote on Weibo.
“There must be a reason behind thousands of years of folklore,” another wrote in defense of the superstition.
The “Year of the Widow” is not an unusual event. Lunar New Years in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021 all lacked Lichun.
But marriage has become an area of increasing concern for China as the Chinese government begins reporting that China’s population will decline in 2023 – for the first time since Mao Zedong’s disastrous Great Leap Forward.
Birth rates and marriage rates have fallen in recent years, suggesting that China’s population will begin to age much faster than its total population accumulates wealth. Rapidly aging societies also plague many East Asian countries, which have per capita GDPs far greater than China can boast.
Meanwhile, local governments are coming up with solutions to encourage young people to marry, from propaganda encouraging working women to return to their hometowns or court bachelors to offering marriage incentives to brides under 25.
So far, statistics show that these strategies have not worked well. Young people in China say they feel increasingly unable to afford the socially sanctioned prerequisites for marriage, such as owning a car or real estate.
Many of the comments on Weibo capture this sentiment. One person wrote: “It’s not appropriate at any age.”
“First you need to find a marriage partner,” writes legal blogger Chen Yiyu.
Meanwhile, in a perhaps positive sign for Beijing’s population’s hopes, the upcoming Lunar New Year will mark the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, which is considered a good year to have children.