Pictures of Pig Slaughtering at Chinese New Year Show the Traditional Rural Custom of Killing the New Year Pig

Pictures of pig slaughtering at Chinese New Year record the traditional scene of killing the New Year pig before Spring Festival in many rural areas of our country. Killing the New Year pig is a long-standing New Year custom: farming families slaughter the fat pig they have raised for a year during the twelfth lunar month to stock up on New Year goods. Such pictures are often full of rustic flavor, letting people feel the New Year atmosphere rushing right off the image.

Judging from common pictures of pig slaughtering at Chinese New Year, the scenes mostly include catching the pig, slaughtering it, scalding and scraping off the hair, and cutting up the pork, as well as the lively scene of fellow villagers and neighbors coming to help. In Northeast China and other regions, after the pig is killed, a pot of pig-killing stew is cooked to treat relatives, friends and neighbors, and this scene of sitting around and eating together also often appears in the pictures.

Killing the New Year pig is not only about stocking up enough New Year goods; it also carries people's joy over the year's harvest and their hopes for the coming year. After a New Year pig is slaughtered, part of the pork is eaten fresh, while the rest is cured into bacon, stuffed into sausages, or frozen for storage, to be enjoyed slowly throughout the first lunar month. Therefore, these pictures are also important material for recording rural food culture and folk life.

It should be noted that scenes of pig slaughtering inevitably contain bloody images, and some pictures may cause discomfort, so viewers should be selective when browsing. Nowadays, with changes in lifestyle, many places hold pig-killing events such as New Year Pig Festivals as folk activities, becoming a way to experience the rural New Year atmosphere, and the related pictures of pig slaughtering at Chinese New Year therefore have even greater commemorative and documentary value.