How to Write 禊 (xì) — Meaning “Purification ceremony (usually by a river).”

Imagine a person (the left radical 礻 stands for a priest) performing a purification ceremony by a riverbank, with water (like the right part 契 which looks like a hand over water). Think of "xì" as 'wash it' — the priest washes away bad luck in the river.

The left radical 礻 is written with a dot-then-dash stroke order, and its final stroke should not touch the right part. On the right side, 契 has a big 大 at top and 刀 below; make sure the horizontal stroke of 大 stretches left slightly to balance the character. A common mistake is making the left radical too wide — keep it narrow.

禊 specifically means a purification ceremony by a river, often a spring festival ritual. 祷 (dǎo) means to pray or make a request to gods, while 祸 (huò) means disaster or misfortune. Visually, 禊 has a complex right side 契, while 祷 has 寿 and 祸 has 呙 on the right.

禊 is very rare in daily conversation; it appears mostly in historical or cultural contexts about ancient purification festivals. The most common term is 修禊 (xiū xì), describing the spring ritual of bathing in a river to cleanse bad luck, famously associated with Wang Xizhi's calligraphy masterpiece 'Preface to the Orchid Pavilion' (禊帖).

Common words containing 禊 include: 修禊 (xiū xì) — ancient purification ritual; 禊帖 (xì tiē) — Calligraphy for the purification festival.; 禊事 (xì shì) — Purification rituals..