Today is the 12th day of the Lunar New Year. The twelfth day marks a transitional period, shifting the focus from intimate family gatherings to community-wide preparations for the Lantern Festival (the 15th and final day of the Spring Festival).
It is a day of quiet anticipation, when the intense festivities of the first week begin to soften into more organized preparations for the New Year’s closing celebrations. Not to be pedantic, but while the Spring Festival officially lasts 15 days, the celebrations actually begin on New Year’s Eve – making it effectively 16 days. You could even argue that the holiday season starts earlier, in the twelfth lunar month with the Laba Festival (traditionally observed on the eighth day of lunar December), extending the festive period to more than a month of celebration.
According to some folk beliefs, this is the time when the divine beings who descended to the mortal world for New Year’s Eve begin their ascent back to heaven, a return sometimes referred to as Tiangong Huícháo. Families may perform brief farewell rituals with incense or candles to express gratitude and bid them a respectful send-off.
Since New Year’s Eve, people have been attending feasts and enjoying rich, oily foods. By the twelfth day, many have been indulging in heavy celebratory dishes for nearly two weeks. As a result, it has become customary from this day onward to shift toward lighter, often vegetarian meals to restore balance.
Because of this prolonged period of indulgence, the twelfth day has humorously acquired the nickname “Diarrhea Day” (yes, really). After so much festive excess, the body sometimes demands a reset.
The Haus of Dcaligari 