The Ministry of Culture announced on February 6 that public libraries, museums and galleries would stay open to the public free of charge during the Spring Festival holiday. In addition, various cultural institutions have prepared cultural activities and exhibitions. The China National Tourism Administration estimated that more than 385 million trips would be made during the Spring Festival holiday.

Recently, people have begun to embrace new ways of spending the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, rather than staying at home or visiting relatives and friends.

More and more convenient transportation makes traveling easy and economic growth has greatly enriched people's material lives. People's demand for culture keeps rising, and they no longer restrict themselves to certain ways of celebrating the Spring Festival.

Of course, change is only happening in the ways people spend the holiday, while the cultural essence of the festival remains unchanged. Wherever they go and however they celebrate, the feeling of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new is the same. This is and always will be a festival for family reunions.

It's important to respect people's diversified choices for celebrating the Spring Festival. Meanwhile, the underlying values of the holiday should be upheld, so that the spirit of this traditional event won't be diluted simply because people have more choices.

This is an edited excerpt of an article published in Nanfang Daily on February 9