Picture shows French couple Martin and Marie’s marriage taken in Kunming. Marie wears a beautiful red wedding dress for the wedding. [Provided to InKunming]

Marie with her son wears a red sweater in Kunming. [Provided to InKunming]

[InKunming--Interviews & Polls]  In the coming of Chinese New Year this year, Martin, a French man, told her wife Marie, a French woman, in a morning to buy red socks, pants and underclothes like Chinese people do to celebrate the New Year in Kunming. The French couple, who have lived in Kunming over 5 years, spent Chinese Spring Festival in the city 3 times.

Martin, started up business in Kunming by chance, cultivates French fruit raspberry in a farm that is not far from Kunming, and has set up a company to sell raspberries mainly in China's markets. Marie, with a dream of spreading knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine to France, is learning the traditional Chinese medicine knowledge at a Kunming’s university. The couple got married in Kunming several years ago, and had their first child in the city more than two months ago.

Due to the couple's experience in Kunming, they had acquainted with a lot of Chinese friends, can speak fluent Chinese, and learned a lot about Chinese culture and about Spring Festival from Chinese friends.

Martin and Marie take picture with Zhuang nationality when they travel in a village of Yunnan Province. [Provided to InKunming]

To the couple Martin and Marie, they would like to wear red socks, pants and underclothes like the Chinese do in the coming of a new year. In Chinese culture, color of red represents happy, auspicious and passionate traits. Chinese people believe that those who wear red clothes from head to foot in the Chinese New Year could be blessed with lucky lives through the whole year as the red color that represents.

Except for red underclothes, Marie also likes to wear red coats, such as red sweaters or skirts that people could see at first glance. In the marriage Martin and Marie carried out in Kunming, Marie also wore a very beautiful red wedding dress.

Also before the coming of Chinese New Year this year, in the Martin’s farm, many lines of big red lanterns were hung up at the suggestion of Marie.

Martin and Marie had spent Spring Festival together three times in Kunming. They were often invited by Yunnan friends to the friends' homes for celebrating the festival. Martin and Marie also invited Chinese friends to their homes for spending the festival.

Within the couple's past experience, Martin and Marie made delicious meals with Chinese friends in the Spring Festival. Traditional Chinese foods, such as dumplings, cured meat, and classic French tastes, such as red wine were put on tables for all of them.

Marie takes a picture in front of a door that is decorated with Spring Festival pictures. [Provided to InKunming]

Picture shows relatives and friends of French couple Martin and Marie have a family gathering with the couple in Kunming. [Provided to InKunming]

In the exception of wearing red clothes, eating with family members and close friends in the Spring Festival, other Chinese traditions and customs that are still inherited in the festival include burning incenses, shooting off firecrackers, replacing Chinese animal zodiac, and so on.

This year, Martin and Marie burned incenses both outside of the door of their house in Kunming and in their raspberry farm before the first day of Chinese New Year. Chinese people believe that burning incenses in the festival could express their prayers to ancestors and gods who protect them from devils.

Marie explained: "Martin and I we believe that burning incenses like the Chinese do could help us draw on good things and avoid evil spirits from inner to outer. We believe what Chinese people believe on traditions and customs of Spring Festival."

Firecrackers are a highlight of Spring Festival in China. Martin and Marie did not miss good opportunity to watch beautiful scenes created by firecrackers. They bought a bunch of firecrackers and fired the firecrackers before the first day of Chinese New Year this year.

"We cannot shoot off firecrackers in France. But in China, we could find funs by shooting off firecrackers during the Chinese Spring Festival," Martin told. Marie added: "Colors and forms of firecrackers are very different from each other when they were burned. I like wonderfulness the firecrackers brought to me very much."

Martin and Marie also consider that shooting off firecrackers could help them dispel evil things from inner to outer.

For Marie herself is a senior learner to Chinese culture, the traditional Chinese medicine, she had a very good understanding to the culture. According to her, Marie also knows well animal sign replacement in China's astrology.

"Martin was born in the year of snake. I was born in the year of ox. China's astrology contains concepts of twelve animals and five elements," Marie told InKunming journalist knowledge about Chinese culture very expertly.

Living in Yunnan for over 5 years, both Martin and Marie have established deep feelings to the province. They highly respect Chinese culture, traditions and customs in the province. For example, when Chinese New Year came, Marie would give employees who work in his company holidays to spend Chinese Spring Festival. "At the time, I became the guard of the farm," Martin said in a humorous tone.

Whatever tradition and custom the couple Martin and Marie respect in Yunnan, China, the most important thing is that they approve the tradition and the custom rooted in Chinese culture. Marie spoke out her ideas: "Chinese New Year implies good harvest and good luck to Chinese people. To say goodbye to old things and welcome new things to people’s lives is a good change. Martin and I like such a change. So, we two would like to wear red socks, pants and underclothes on our bodies, and hung up red lanterns in our farm, to express our expectations that everything becomes booming as Chinese red color stands for."

Click here to view Chinese report.

(Editors: Cathy Chen, Tracy)