‘Sky breaks’: in some China regions, lying flat can avoid bad luck; use ‘mending pancakes’

While many Chinese people joke that they “work like a dog” because they are anxious about dropping out of the rat race, there is a tradition in some areas that people can legitimately “lie flat” once a year to ward off bad luck.The day is called tian chuan, or the day when the sky breaks. It usually falls on the 20th day of the first lunar month, and marks the day when the sky that Nuwa mended breaks once in a year.Nuwa is a mythological figure, a mother goddess who is said to have moulded the first humans out of clay, and patched the tear in the sky with melted stones of five colours.The tian chuan day falls around the same time of the Rain Water solar term, which is named after the first rains of the year.The above painting depicts the mythological mother goddess Nuwa. Photo: leigongmo.comThere is also a folk belief that raining suggests that the sky Nuwa patched is breaking.The day is said to have been established in the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220), and widely celebrated in the Song dynasty (960–1279).Today, it is still celebrated in some northern regions such as Shanxi and Henan provinces, and among the Hakka people in China and abroad.The Hakka people in Guangdong province, southern China, believe that it will bring bad luck if people work on this day.Those who insist on working would be scolded by the family elders, that no matter how hard they work it is not enough to mend the sky.A community celebration in China involving expressive dancing by children. Photo: leigongmo.comInstead, the labour of housewives is valued on this day. Women are also liberated from their heavy housework on this day.Further ReadingThey are especially asked not to do needlework, as it might bring bad luck and toil for these women in the year to come.The Hakka people usually make steamed sweet rice cake during the Chinese New Year and keep the food until the tian chuan day for “sky mending”.A vast array of delicacies and fruit laid out for a village celebration. Photo: leigongmo.comOn the tian chuan day, people would fry the leftover sweet rice cake, and instead of eating them, they use them to patch the crannies in the wall, wishing for good luck in the coming year.People in northern China who celebrate the day usually make round and thin pancakes, and throw them into the sky, up to the rooftop or lay them on the ground as a symbol of mending the sky and the ground.The tian chuan day is essentially a day when people wish for favourable weather and good harvest in the following year.After the pancake ritual is over, some families also gather to eat the pancakes, wishing for all members to have a healthy and happy year.