Villagers from Chentang village of Ninghua county, Sanming city in Southeast China's Fujian province frolic in a muddy field on Feb 22. The mud fight is a traditional Hakka ritual celebrated each year to welcome the arrival of spring. [Photo by Shi Fuling/Xinhua]

Centuries-old religious festivals usually do not involve mud-wrestling, flying clods of earth or water fights. But villagers from Ninghua county of Sanming city in Southeast China's Fujian province took part in all three with gusto on Feb 22, as they greeted the arrival of spring by throwing themselves into one of China's most unique cultural rituals.

People from Ninghua observe this religious ceremony-cum-carnival on the seventh day of the first month of the Lunar New Year each year. The riotous occasion is designed to awaken the sleeping earth and welcome the spring before local farmers begin plowing the fields.

Naochuntian, which literally translates as "Frolic in Spring Fields", is said to date back centuries and is an important part of the culture of the Hakka, a sub-group of China’s majority Han ethnic group with its own distinct culture. Fujian is a crucible of this essentially diasporic community, formed from waves of migrants from North China who fled south to escape war and social upheaval from the Qin Dynasty (BC 221 - 207) onwards.

Fireworks, firecrackers and drumbeats broke the stillness of morning to announce the start of the festival as a parade of young men carrying a bright red sedan chair, on which rested a statue of the god of five cereals, made their way through the village.