Archive for category Festival
Spring Festival
Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or Chinese Lunar New Year, is the most important traditional festival in China. Its history can date back to the Shang Dynasty (1600BC – 1100BC).
The festival consists of a period of celebrations, starting on the first day of the first lunar month and ending with the Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the month. In Chinese culture, it is the most important festival for all the family members to get together.
Celebration
Sweeping of the Grounds
For the preparation for the New Year, every corner of the house must be swept and cleaned ten days before the New Year Day.
Spring Couplets
Spring Couplets represent best wishes and fortune for the coming year. They will be posted on the front doors in the month before the New Year’s Day, and often stay up for two months.
Reunion Dinner
All the family members will get together to have dinner on the New Year’s Eve.
Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
Food
In Chinese culture, there are many foods related with this festival, for example, Niangao, Jiaozi, Fagao, Yusheng, etc.
Dongzhi Festival
The Dongzhi Festival, also called Winter Solstice Festival, is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. It is a solar term in Chinese lunar calendar and in the solar calendar, it always falls on December 22 or 23 each year.
As early as more than 2500 years ago, winter solstice was mensurated by Chinese via observing movements of the sun with sundials. During the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), it became a festival of great importance for the Chinese people. On that day, all the family members would get together and have meal together. Ancient Chinese also regarded this day as a day to offer scarifies to heaven and their ancestors.
In the southern parts of China, all the family members would make and eat Tangyuan, a kind of stuffed dumpling ball which is made of glutinous rice flour, symbolizing reunion in the Chinese culture. In some parts of the northern China, people would eat dumplings, believing that doing so would keep them from frost in the upcoming winter.
Temple Fair
Fair, also known as Miaohui in Chinese, is a traditional cultural events with various Chinese customs and folklore.
Temple Fair used to be a showing activity to transmit the tenet of Buddhism and Taoism. Later, it became an event for worship, recreation, commercial trades, etc.
For ancient Chinese, it was also the main trading market for them to buy daily necessities. Nowadays, to keep pace with the times，more color and dimension has been added to it. It is a combination of goods mart and entertainment venue now.
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