The 71-year-old farmer had made a pilgrimage to the cottage, in the western suburbs of Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, to mark a day in honor of Du Fu -- one of the nation's greatest poets.

"I have come specially to take part in the celebration of 'Day of Human Beings'," Ran said.

The celebrations attracted around 13,200 people to the Du Fu Thatched Cottage on the seventh day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The jamboree is a time-honored local custom in Chengdu during the Spring Festival celebration and originated in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Visitors listened to children, actors and poetry lovers reciting poems written by Du Fu, or singing lyrics from his poems.

A native of central China's Henan Province, Du (AD712-770) ranks alongside Li Bai as one of China's greatest poets. His poems are prescribed reading for China's primary school students and foreign students majoring in Chinese literature.

Du lived for nearly four years in the cottage in the western suburbs of Chengdu, writing 240 of his 1,400-plus poems during that period. Because of his great poetic achievements, Du has long been hailed as China's "Poetic Saint" and the Du Fu Thatched Cottage as a sacred place in Chinese literature.

Remembering Du on the seventh day of the first month of the lunar calendar began in the Qing Dynasty after He Shaoji, a scholar, wrote a couplet about the thatched cottage. It reads: "Your former residence is located in an ideal position; I came to the thatched cottage on the Day of Human Beings to remember you."

The first seven days of the first month of the lunar calendar are marked as the days of the rooster, dog, pig, goat, ox, horse and humans in local customs, said Shi Wanxiang, an official at the cottage.

The lines written by He Shaoji became so popular that men of letters in Chengdu emulated his practice, flocking to the thatched cottage on the "Day of Human Beings" and improvising poems and singing them.

Visiting the 16-hectare Chengdu Du Fu Thatched Cottage, a garden-like commemorative museum, has become a custom of Chengdu residents during Spring Festival.

In addition to that held in Chengdu, celebrations in many other parts of Sichuan feature folk customs.

In Dujiangyan, a small city 55 kilometres northwest of Chengdu, locals and visitors can appreciate classical Chinese music played with traditional musical instruments, such as the flute, four-stringed Chinese lute, zither and serial bells.

In Zigong, a medium-sized city in southern Sichuan, residents have begun celebrating the annual lantern festival. But foreign cultures are the main themes of the 1,000-year-old lantern show for the first time.

The 40-day show, which ends on March 4, displays 98 different lantern groups and 2,000 small lanterns featuring the ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures, as well as historical events, totems, religions, fairy tales, folk art and customs from more than 30 countries and regions around the world.

(China Daily February 8, 2003)