Zuo dui sui, the first birthday
On the child’s first year: offerings to the gods, sacrifices to the ancestors, guests, and the choosing of an object; the grandmother brings new clothes and new shoes.
Pronunciation zuò duì suì｜Rites of passage｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
At one year, offerings are made to the gods and sacrifices to the ancestors, and relatives and friends are feasted. The grandmother brings new clothes and new shoes, and the family makes peach cakes to give to the neighbours. The day is called the first-year wine in some places, and simply the pair of years in others.
For the choosing, the table is laid with the four treasures of the study, books, an abacus, a steelyard, a seal, needle and thread, cosmetics, toys, sweets and coins, and which the child takes first is watched. Formerly the brush and inkstone were most wished for, and needlework or toys taken first were a disappointment.
When you see it
At the first year. In the countryside the celebration is sometimes moved to the following Lantern Festival and combined with the lantern hung in the hall and the birth table: a household that had a boy after the previous Lantern Festival hangs a lantern at its door that year, lights a red candle in the hall lantern at night, and gives a banquet.
Words easily confused
The first birthday belongs to a child, a big birthday to an elder; both mean a feast, and not the same rites. Nor is it the same as the yearly small birthday, which is one bowl of sweet noodles with no guests and no gifts.
Read next: Birth rites: the third day, the full month, the first birthday.
See also: Rites of passage: five thresholds.
Same group: the full month, the first haircut, the third day.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026