Hainan International Coconut Festival
From the ancient times, Hainan was known as "Coconut Island", and the coconut palm is the symbol of Hainan. During April 3rd-7th, 1992, the first Hainan International Coconut Festival was held. After that, from every end of March to the beginning of April, there will be the coconut festival. And the festival has 8-year history. It has become an influential celebration in Hainan. Coconut Festival is the combination of touring, culture, customs, physical sports and trade. The aim of the festival is "developing tourist industry, culture exchange, trade promotion, and further opening up". It attracts lots of tourists and businessmen at home and abroad with the characteristic of Hainan folk customs and culture. It fulfils the function of "let the world know Hainan and let Hainan go to the world step by step". In 1993, the General Secretary Jiang Zemin attended the Second Hainan International Coconut Festival and the Fifth Anniversary of Economic Zone of Hainan, and he delivered an important speech at the meeting.
Junpo Festival
After the spring festival, in the February of lunar calendar, people in Hainan will be in Junpo Festival. Having Junpo Festival is a typical custom in Hainan. Junpo is divided into "Gong Period" and "Po Period" according to the sex of the consecrated gods. It is mainly a custom to offer sacrifices to ancestors and historic figures. Because of the difference between the consecrated gods, the "Gong Period" and "Po Period" of different villages are not the same. When there is Junpo Festival, people usually form a unit in a county or village. They will make large offering sacrifices, shoulder the ancestor of Gong and the ancestor of Po to look around the village, and invite the friends to home. The scale is very large, and the food is superior to that of Spring Festival. Dragon and lion team will go to every family to visit. In the evening, the families in the village collect the money together to invite the opera troupe to perform Qiong Opera. The earliest record of the festival is in Song Dynasty. Now the grandest celebration is the "Po Period" in Xinpoliangsha, Qiongshan. Liangsha Po is Mrs. Xian in Sui Dynasty. The "Po Period" of Liangsha is during February 9th-12th of the lunar calendar. At that time, the ancestor of Po will look around the village, and Taoist Priest will make folk dance. It will fascinate you by some mysterious customs.
Flower Exchanging Festival
Every evening of January 15th of lunar calendar, the city of Qiongshan, which is near Haikou, is in the sea of flower. This is a unique Flower Exchanging Festival, which is held once a year.
Flower Exchanging Festival is a folk festival in Qiongshan, and it has a long history. It is said that it began from Tang Dynasty. At the very beginning, it exchanged incense, not flower, and it meant the descendant would follow generation after generation. After the founding of the special zone in Hainan, traditional incense is taken place by flowers. The scale, range and the region are enlarged year by year.
On January 15th of lunar calendar, with all the lights on, streams of people gather in Fucheng, Qiongshan. The streets are full of flowers. Many people in Haikou, especially the youths, holding flowers, walking along the Haifu Road, form a flower exchanging groups. The understandings of flower exchanging people are different. Most of them want to bless each other by exchanging the flowers at the beginning of spring while the youths take this festival to be a good chance to make friends. They want to use flowers as matchmaker to find their future spouse. Nowadays, the area of flower exchanging extends to Wanly Garden, and the influence of Flower Exchanging Festival will become larger and larger.