First and most important are the New Year holidays, which are celebrated with as much éclat as unceasing firing of pyrotechnics, calls of ceremony and universal good-will and joy will contribute. Debts are paid up at the end of the year, and for the first week or two little or no business is transacted. Every one gives himself up to jollity. Children, on such days, are surfeited with sweetmeats, and holes are made in their holiday clothes by burning fire-crackers. Largesses are bestowed upon both children and servants, while beggars are also remembered, so that this season is really the most joyous of the year—the time when charity is most charitable and benevolence assumes a more benevolent aspect. Next, in order of time, comes the Feast of Lanterns. The main feature of this fête, as the name implies, is a procession with lanterns of all shapes and kinds. Soon after nightfall, men and boys get in line, each carrying upon a bamboo pole a great paper bird, or quadruped, or fish, inside of which candles are lit. Very fantastic shapes sometimes are seen, and mythological books are ransacked to procure strange creatures. Imagine three or four hundred of these lanterns passing before you, all brilliant with rich colors. Sandal-wood is burnt in censers carried in small movable pavilions, while bands of music mingle their racket with the applause of the spectators and the jokes of the men in the procession. Last of all an immense and terrible dragon about forty feet in length is borne along supported on bamboo poles by a dozen or twenty men. There is another procession similar to this in the fourth month, only it takes place in the daytime instead of at night, and the large number and variety of lanterns are wanting. In the fifth month are held the dragon-boat races. These boats are narrow and long, capable of holding about one hundred men sitting one behind the other. Each one carries a paddle, and the boat is so made that it can go just as well backwards as forwards. The direction devolves upon the men in the ends of the boat. In the centre the idol from whose ward or district the boat hails, sits enthroned with an immense umbrella of red silk to keep the sun from tanning his complexion. A band of music accompanies each boat. By its warlike clangor it encourages the racers, while its drum beats the time for the stroke. Banners are given after the race, as spoils of victory, to be placed in the temple of the patron deity. The scene on the rivers on such an occasion is very animated and the cheers of the spectators from the different districts attest their interest.