Between gods and green: ritual plant use of traditional festivals in the Chaoshan region, China.

Résumé

BACKGROUND: The Chaoshan region in Lingnan, South China, is known for its dense festival calendars and household-based ritual practices in which plants serve both practical and symbolic roles. Plant-centered documentation of ritual practices in this Han Chinese setting remains limited. This study documents ritual plants used in Chaoshan festival practices and examines their cultural meanings and the transmission of knowledge.METHODS: We conducted ethnobotanical fieldwork between October 2023 and October 2025 across three Chaoshan cities, using semi-structured interviews and participatory observation. A total of 100 key informants were interviewed. Ritual plant importance and cultural salience were assessed using the Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) and the Cultural Importance Index (CII), and knowledge differences across demographic groups were tested statistically.RESULTS: We documented 25 traditional festivals spanning 11 months and recorded 60 ritual plant species (52 genera, 31 families), with cultivated taxa dominating (58 species, 96.67%). Fabaceae and Poaceae were the most represented families (6 species each, 10%). Punica granatum and Citrus reticulata ranked highest in both RFC and CII. Six cultural connotations were identified, with prayer for well-being and prosperity being the most prevalent (41 species, 68.33%). Plant selection was primarily associated with biological characteristics (39 species, 65%) and homophony (27 species, 45%). Knowledge transmission was reported mainly through oblique pathways, and women were the principal practitioners and knowledge holders. Reported knowledge differed significantly across age groups.CONCLUSIONS: Ritual plant selection in Chaoshan follows shared local logics, especially homophony and salient plant traits. Transmission is closely tied to household participation and kinship roles, and the combination of low stated intention to pass knowledge to the next generation with clear-age differences suggests that continuity is under pressure.