水仙, originally uploaded by Black Angel ❤.

Photographer Yalin has posted a new photo of her daffodils taken today on January 26, 2009 – Chinese New Year (see below post for the original photo and description). We wrote to hear a little bit more about the tale of the daffodil in Chinese tradition:

There are two tales. I try to translate them for you.

ONE:
In Chinese tale, the daffodils are the avatar of infant EHuang & NvYing. It is said that Emperor Yao have two daughters who are named Ehuang and NvYing. Both Ehuang and NvYing married to the same husband emperor Shun. When the shun die, the Ehuang and NvYing suicide beside the Xiang river for the love. Then their fetches became the daffodils.
TWO:
In the Jiangzhou city of Fujian province, there is a village is called CaiBan It is a countrywoman who is very kind came across a beggar who hardly died of hungry. But no one knew the beggar is a god. The countrywoman picked him back to her room. And then serve him a bowl of rice. The beggar spit the rice from his mouth suddenly. And the rice became the daffodils.

I am sorry for I can’t translate well. I think you will understand clearlier now. LOL~

We recently learned that the daffodil is a traditional part of the celebration of the Chinese New Year. When we saw the above photograph, taken with a mobile phone in Canton on January 25, 2009, we wrote to the photographer Yalin to ask about the daffodil in China. Yalin, who is a law student, explains in splendid scholarly detail:

Happy Chinese new year . I am pleasure to answer your question.

Yes. Daffodil is an important flower in Chinese New Year tradition. Er… I think every family would like to buy it during that time. That is for the flower means lucky, elegance, beauty… It’s Chinese name is “ fairy in the water” for there is a tale. The tale says infant died for love beside the river. After that, she became the flower.

Daffodil is not from a garden nursery or a store. Following is the introduce,
1. We buy the daffodil root. And then put it into the basin which is full of water. In order to make the flower erect, we will put some stone into the basin.
Pic: botu.bokee.com/photodata/2007-1-4/000/533/764/5317702/5317702_l.jpg
www1.sekst.edu.hk/subject/pta/photo/ptan4.jpg

Hey, do you now have a question why don’t grow it in the earth? LOL… There is two reasons:
One is for it will be more beautiful when grow in the water. Think, we would like to put it in our living room.
The other is it will be grow fast when grow it in the water. Of course, we have to make sure it can live in the warm circumstance.
If you want to grow it in the earth, you must make sure the earth is humid.

2. After about one month. Of course it depends on the circumstances. It can be abloom.
Pic: dl.zhishi.sina.com.cn/upload/94/20/84/1215942084.8154285.jpg
farm1.static.flickr.com/4/5958633_90a64a805b.jpg

I know the daffodil is from Middle Eur., Med and north Africa. And it have some mutation in CHN. There is the two kinds of this flower:
Single leaves: imgsrc.baidu.com/baike/pic/item/a992e31f7d65f41c304e15cc.jpg
Multiplex leaves: imgsrc.baidu.com/baike/pic/item/08b68e52df1190130cf3e3f6.jpg

I am sorry for my poor English. And I am not the major. So …I hope that will not make you confused and the information can help you.

Yalin, we understand your English perfectly and admire your attention to detail. We give you an A+ on this daffodil essay! Happy New Year to all.