Traditional Chinese Festivals

The Spring Festival

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, is the most important festival in China, and it dates back some two thousand years.
 
It marks the first day of the lunar year, and it is the time when families get together and reunite if they are separated. The date of the festival varies from year to year, according to the lunar calendar, but it usually falls in late January or early February in the Gregorian calendar.  However, the rule is simple: it always falls on the Second New Moon (dark of the moon) after the Winter Solstice (~ Dec. 22).

 On the lunar New Year’s Eve, the sound of firecrackers is heard throughout the night, signifying “doing away with the old and making the way for the new.” It is an old custom for people to stay up late, or all night. Nowadays in the cities most people stay up late watching TV;  “Chun jie lian huan wn hui”, a program which is very important to the people of China, or playing cards, or preparing food for the next day.

 

The Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival is held fifteen days after the lunar New Year (on the First Full Moon). It is a tradition to hang decorative lanterns in public places and to eat yuanxiao, a kind of glutinous rice-flour ball with a sweet or savory filling.
 

The Pure Brightness Festival

The Pure Brightness Festival, or the Qing Ming Festival, is on the fifth of the twenty-four solar terms, according to the traditional Chinese calendar, the solar terms are defined according to the position of the sun in the zodiac. The festival takes place on the fourth or fifth day of the fourth month of the Gregorian calendar, and on this day people usually go to tidy up, or “sweep” the graves of the departed friends and relatives and revolutionary martyrs.
 

The Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival, or Duan Wu Festival, falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It developed from appeasing the river dragon gods into a popular festival commemorating the suicide of Qu Yuan, a poet in the Warring States Period (475 B.C. – 221 B.C.),  who could no longer bear the moral degeneration of his state. On the fifth day of the fifth day in the lunar calendar, dragon boats are raced in water to commemorate those who tried to save the poet, and as an offering to the river gods. The Dragon Boat Race has now become a popular sport in China, and at abroad where ever there is a Chinese community.

 

The Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-autumn Festival is held on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the middle of autumn in the traditional Chinese calendar. In China it is called “Zhong qiu jie” It takes place at harvest time on the night of the full moon, which symbolizes unity. Moon cakes are eaten on this auspicious day. Moon cakes are round cakes filled with dried fruit (like fruit-cake citron or sweet, mashed beans…), and they symbolize the perfect roundness of the moon at the time of the festival. According to Chinese tradition, no matter how far away you are working, you should come home and join your family for the festival.

Shanxi Normal University

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