1. Origin & Legend (起源与传说)
The old saying is blunt: “Whether you have money or not, shave your head for the New Year” (有钱没钱，剃头过年). Between Little New Year and New Year’s Eve, every member of the household—grandparents to infants—takes a thorough bath and a fresh haircut. The custom rests on a firm taboo: no hair may be cut during the first lunar month, for cutting hair in the New Year is said to “cut away” one’s uncle (Si Jiu 死舅 puns with Si Jiu 思旧—mourning the old—transformed by folk etymology into a family duty).
So the days after Little New Year become the year’s busiest season for bathhouses and barbershops. In old Beijing, bathhouse queues stretched around the block; in the south, the ritual bath—Mu Yu (沐浴)—included scrubbing with medicinal Ai Cao (mugwort) water to “wash away the hundred illnesses.”
2. Symbolic Meaning (文化寓意)
- Washing Off the Old Year: Water carries away last year’s dust, fatigue, and minor misfortunes—paired with Sao Chen for the house, this is the cleaning of the body.
- Hair as Stored Fortune: Traditional belief held that hair received during the year stored the year’s energy. Cutting it before the New Year releases the old and makes room for new growth—literal and figurative.
- Respect for the New: Meeting the New Year with unkempt hair was considered an insult to the incoming fortune; cleanliness was the minimum courtesy owed to the gods who would visit during the festival.
3. How It Is Practiced (仪轨)
- The Bath: Families heat water with mugwort, ginger, or pomelo leaves—each believed to dispel cold and illness—and scrub thoroughly. Children get their ears and necks inspected: “clean enough to eat off,” grandparents joke.
- The Haircut: Before New Year’s Eve, everyone visits the barber. The last haircut must be finished in the old year—barbershops traditionally close from the first to the second lunar month.
- New Clothes Finale: Freshly bathed and shorn, the family dons new clothes (even if only new socks), completing the transformation from the old year’s people into the New Year’s.
4. Modern Evolution (现代演变)
The taboo on first-month haircuts still holds remarkable power—barbershops across China report their single busiest day of the year on Little New Year, and many elderly still scold grandchildren who cut hair in January. Modern spas have upgraded the ritual bath into “New Year wellness” packages, but the logic is unchanged: you cannot welcome new fortune wearing the old year’s dust.