| |
The Chinese Festivals occur throughout the Lunar year. Each festival is rich on tradition and custom. Festivals are definitely very important to the Chinese people and each festival has its own meaning. The particular festivals discussed here will help you enjoy and participate in these magic celebrations.
1.New Year's Day January
New Year's Day is the first day of the year, in the Gregorian calendar, falling exactly one week after Christmas Day of the previous year. In modern times, it is January 1. In most countries, it is a holiday. It is a holy day to many of those who still use the Julian calendar, which includes followers of some of the Eastern Orthodox churches, and is celebrated on January 14 of the Gregorian calendar due to differences between the two calendars.
2.Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)
The Chinese New Year is the most important of all the festivals. It is a time of centuries old tradition. To the Chinese people it is as important as Christmas to people in the West. The dates for this annual celebration are determined by the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, so the timing of the holiday varies from late January to early February.
To the ordinary Chinese, the festival actually begins on the eve of the lunar New Year's Day and ends on the fifth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. But the 15th of the first month, which normally is called the Lantern Festival, means the official end of the Spring Festival in many parts of the country.
"Guo NPreparations for the New Year begin the last few days of the last moon, when houses are thoroughly cleaned, debts repaid, hair cut and new clothes purchased. Houses are festooned with paper scrolls bearing auspicious antithetical couplet (as show on both side of the page) and in many homes, people burn incense at home and in the temples to pay respects to ancestors and ask the gods for good health and good fortune in the coming months.
"Guo nian"(过年)， meaning "passing the year," is the common term among the Chinese people for celebrating the Spring Festival. It actually means greeting the new year. At midnight at the turn of the old and new year, people used to let off fire-crackers which serve to drive away the evil spirits and to greet the arrival of the new year. In an instant the whole city would be engulfed in the deafening noise of the firecrackers. |
|
 |
On New Year's Eve, all the members of families come together to feast. Jiaozi（饺子）, a steamed dumpling as pictured below, is popular in the north, while southerners favor a sticky sweet glutinous rice pudding called nian gao（年糕）.
However，on the first day of Chinese New Year people go to visit friends and relatives, which is called “Bai Nian”(拜年) in Chinese. New clothes and new shoes are worn to symbolize the New Year and red packet containing small amounts of money are exchanged.
3.Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival, which occurs on the 15-th day of the First Month of the Chinese New Year, marks the end of the New Year's Holidays.
Lanterns are everywhere. A most interesting tradition is the posting of riddles called 'Lantern Riddles' (灯谜). Riddles are written on pieces of paper and posted on lanterns or wall. Any one solving the riddle is awarded a prize.
“Yuanxiao”(元宵) is the special food for the Lantern Festival. It is believed that Yuanxiao is named after a palace maid, Yuanxiao, of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty. Yuanxiao is a kind of sweet dumpling, which is made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing. Therefore the Festival is named after the famous dumpling. It is very easy to cook - simply dump them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes - and eaten as a desert.
4．Ching Ming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day)
The Ching Ming festival is celebrated in April and is known as "Remembrance of Ancestors Day". This day is devoted to honoring relatives who died. Thousands of Chinese visit cemeteries to clean the graves of their loved ones. The Chinese hold great respect for their ancestors and the young are taught to pray to, and for, the family spirits. Young people accompany their parents to the gravesite and help in the cleaning process. The "willow" is regarded as the symbol of light and enemy of darkness in Chinese culture. On Ching Ming, willow twigs and branches are hung in doorways to ward off the evil spirits. It is believed that if you don't hang the willow, you will appear as yellow dog in your next life!
5．Dragon Boat Festival
The 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar year is an important day for the Chinese people. The day called "Duan Wu" (meaning Day of Right Mid-Day) is observed everywhere in China. This unique Chinese celebration dates back to earliest times and a number of legends explain its origins.
The best known story centers on a patriotic court official named Qu Yuan（屈原）, of the State of Chu during the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago. Qu tried to warn the emperor of an increasingly corrupt government, but fails. In a last desperate protest, he throws himself into the river and drowns. The State of Chu was soon annexed by the State of Qin.
At the news of the poet's death, the local people raced out in boats in an effort of searching his body. Later the activity became a boat race and the boats gradually developed into dragon-boats. In many places along rivers and on the coast today, the holiday also features dragon-boat races. In these high-spirited competitions, teams of rowers stroke their oars in unision to propel sleek, long vessels through the water.
Later Qu Yuan's sympathizers jump into boats, beat the water with their oars and made rice dumplings wrapped in reed-leaves (zongzi粽子) and scatter them into the Miluo River in the hope that fish in the river would eat the rice dumplings instead of the body of the deceased poet.
The custom of making rice dumplings spread to the whole country. Today, people eat glutinous rice cakes to mark the occasion. |
|
 |
 |
6．The Moon Festival （Mid－autumn Festival）
On the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, the moon is round and the Chinese people mark their Moon (or Mid-autumn) Festival. The round shape to a Chinese means family reunion. Therefore the Moon Festival is a holiday for members of a family to get together wherever it is possible.
As each Chinese holiday is accompanied by some kind of special food, on the Moon Festival, people eat moon cakes, a kind of cookie with fillings of sugar, fat, sesame, walnut, the yoke of preserved eggs, ham or other material. In Chinese fairy tales, there live on the moon the fairy Chang E, a wood cutter named Wu Gang and a jade rabbit which is Chang E's pet. In the old days, people paid respect to the fairy Chang E and her pet the jade rabbit.
The custom of paying homage to the fairy and rabbit is gone, but the moon cakes are showing improvement every year. There are hundreds of varieties of moon cakes on sale a month before the arrival of the Moon Festival this year. Some moon cakes are of very high quality and very delicious. An overseas tourist is advised not to miss it if he or she happens to be in China during the Moon Festival.
 |
|
 |
7. Double Nine Festival
September the 9th is the traditional Chongyang Festival in China. Because number 6 was stipulated as a yin number and 9 as a yang number, so the day of September the 9th became Chongyang Festival.(In Chinese language, chong means double) or called as Chongjiu(double nine) Festival. Chinese think Chongyang Festival is a good day, and this festival has been celebrating long long ago.
There are many activities on Chongyang Festival, such as travel outside, climbing hills, appreciating the chrysanthemum, wear cornels, eating chongyang cakes, drinking chrysanthemum wine and so on.
Today's Chongyang becomes much meaningful. For example, it has been decided as Senior People's Day. On this day, senior people go out and enjoy themselves very much. |
|
|