Photo: IC

Seeking a year filled with both abundance and romance? This year, the fifth day on the lunar calendar, which is traditionally the day to greet the God of Wealth, coincides with Valentine’s Day, and it could be the answer to everyone’s dreams of love and financial prosperity. Young Chinese celebrated the two festivals at the same time in creative ways.

According to traditional Chinese geomancy, households embrace the time-honored practice of welcoming the God of Wealth, or Cai Shen in Chinese, into their home or office on the fifth day of the first lunar month, inviting prosperity for the forthcoming year.

Dating back to ancient times, Chinese households traditionally hang pictures of the God of Wealth in the main hall during the Spring Festival to pray for wealth and good fortune.

Welcoming the God of Wealth did not stop people from expressing love to each other on Wednesday. On the contrary, many young Chinese have chosen chocolate wrapped in golden foil as a present for their beloved on Valentine’s Day to express both their affection and their wish for financial prosperity. 

Data shows that the sales of chocolate products have witnessed a rapid growth since February, with a 20-fold increase in searches for chocolate with gold packaging. Another survey shows that over 40 percent of men prepared two Valentine's Day gifts this year, one for their partner and another for their mother on behalf of their father.

Hoarding gold has become a new favorite investment among young people and many gold brands have introduced new gold jewelry incorporating romantic elements such as flowers and hearts specifically for Valentine's Day. 

Analysts say that this gold consumption boom, jointly driven by Valentine's Day and the day to welcome the God of Wealth, demonstrates people's pursuit of romance and wealth, and injects new vitality into the gold market.

To make the day more memorable, many couples choose to get married on Valentine's Day, and despite this year's Valentine's Day coinciding with the Spring Festival holidays, many marriage registration offices have chosen to work to meet the people’s wish to tie the knot on this special day.

This year, digital greeting cards and virtual gifts have also gained in popularity and have become a trendy way for couples who are apart to spend Spring Festival with their families and celebrate Valentine’s Day with their loved ones.

There is still a large group of young people on the internet who say that they are more interested in welcoming the God of Wealth than finding a partner.

Many netizens have posted pictures showing that they have changed their phone and computer wallpapers to "God of Wealth." 
Some people set up stalls at temple fairs while others kept working on this day even though it’s still the holiday, heralding a decent income for the whole year. 

On Wednesday, under a video posted by China’s Ministry of Finance on social media, many netizens left comments under the post expressing their hope to receive good fortune and jokingly asking the Ministry of Finance to support their dreams. 

Some tourist attractions have also arranged celebrations centered around the God of Wealth. On Wednesday, some people impersonating the "God of Wealth" waited at the entrance of the Shanghai Tower to greet visitors and bring them good fortune. The Shanghai Tower Observation Deck also invited a group of window cleaners dressed as "Airborne Gods of Wealth" to descend from the top of the skyscraper in a safe manner, offering New Year blessings and good luck to the visitors on-site.