Spring Festival signifies the start of a next year, and it is the time when feasts are organized and gifts, some expensive, exchanged. But it is high time that people stopped wasting food and money for vanity's sake, says an article in Guangming Daily. Excerpts:

Thrift is closely related to virtue. As an ancient Chinese saying goes, frugality cultivates virtue. Fighting against extravagance and waste is also related to social morality.

Banquets and gifts are where most of the money goes during Spring Festival. Huge leftovers have become common at Lunar New Year's Eve dinners. Some people order much more than they and their relatives and friends can consume to "save face", but a majority do so to show off their wealth or power.

And most of the expensive gifts that people get during Spring Festival don't have any practical use and are thus a waste of money.

Thrift, as history tells us, is also closely related to a nation's policies. The central government asked the people to start the year 2013 on a thrifty note. So they should continue the practice during Lunar New Year, too.

It is good to see that some changes are taking place and some local governments are reducing money on official banquets to give them to model workers and disadvantaged groups as rewards. In fact, the sale of some expensive seafood has largely declined before Spring Festival because restaurants are buying less expensive food products to cater to guests.

Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy and a waste-free Lunar New Year. And let us maintain our traditional values without spending huge amounts of money on dinners and generate waste and buy extravagant gifts just to show off and satisfy our sense of vanity.