Perhaps not to condone "barbaric customs", but I can offer an explanation. It is still within living memory of many Chinese the time of massive starvation and malnutrition where getting something to eat, anything to eat, was imperative to survival for yourself and your loved ones. What we may call a "barbaric custom", to them was getting to live one more day. When I was working in China I had a conversation with an older Chinese coworker and he told me about some of the worst times. Although today the "normal" food supply is back on line, the "barbaric customs" have not entirely been discarded.

With all that said, you are absolutely correct about the element of mysticism causing the foolish slaughter of various species. That has nothing to do with survival, for sure. It is pure idiocy.

Edit add: I just remembered another idiotic Chi-com edict and that is the Mao regime determined that sparrows were the reason for low crop yields and ordered the extermination of them. This caused a disaster because the increase of insects that ate crops got out of control. The edict was rescinded, but not everyone got the memo.

Thanks for the info. I'm not an expert on this subject, but I did say "other forms of consumable alcoholic beverages" in my post. Up to now I can only go by what I've seen and heard over the decades and my reply to Abaco was also meant to have an element of humor in it in reference to his beer supply to get through this crisis.