Eight Ancient Festivals in China

The most solemn festival in China's traditional customs. This festival is the first in a year. The ancients also called Yuanri, New Year's Day, Jacky, Spring Festival and Xinzheng. Now they are called after the Spring Festival and adopt the Gregorian calendar era. In ancient times, "Spring Festival" and "Spring" were synonymous. On the one hand, the custom of the Spring Festival is to celebrate the past year, on the other hand, it is to wish a happy New Year, a bumper harvest of crops and prosperity of people and animals, which are mostly related to farming.

Welcome and dance the dragon to please the dragon god, and the weather is good; Lion dance originated from a legend, that is, the town is afraid of monsters that destroy crops and harm people and animals. With the development of society, activities such as worshipping the gods and worshipping the sky are gradually eliminated, and customs such as burning firecrackers, posting Spring Festival couplets, hanging New Year pictures, playing dragon lanterns, dancing lions and celebrating the New Year are still widely popular.

2. Lantern Festival

Traditional folk festivals in China. The fifteenth day of the first month, also known as the first half of the month, Shangyuan Festival, Lantern Festival, Yuanxiao, Yuanxiao, Yuanxiao, Yuanxiao. The custom of eating Yuanxiao began in the Song Dynasty. The custom of Lantern Festival includes watching lanterns, wrapping jiaozi, and playing drums in the New Year to welcome Ce Shen and solve riddles on the lanterns. Yuanxiao is a kind of jiaozi, which is a solid or stuffed jiaozi made of glutinous rice flour. You can eat soup, stir-fry it or steam it. Also known as.

It is also called the Lantern Festival, because on the last night of the Lantern Festival, people hang lanterns to play. Song notes Shu Zhen's "Born in the West": "Last year's Lantern Festival, the flower market was full of lights."

3. Qingming

Traditional folk festivals in China. According to the lunar calendar, it is the first half of March, and according to the solar calendar, it is April 5 or 6 every year. At this time, the weather is getting warmer and sunny. "Everything is so clean and bright", hence Tomb-Sweeping Day's name. Its customs include sweeping graves, hiking, swinging, flying kites and wearing flowers.

4. Dragon Boat Festival

Traditional folk festivals in China. Also known as Duanyang, Chongwu and Chongwu. "Duan" means "Chu" Dragon Boat Festival was originally held in the afternoon of the first month. Because "May" and "noon" are homophonic, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month becomes the Dragon Boat Festival. It is generally believed that this festival is related to the commemoration of Qu Yuan. It is said that Qu Yuan drowned in loyalty and loyalty, and threw himself into the river on the fifth day of May. People rushed to save Qu Yuan, which later evolved into a tradition of rowing dragon boats.

People also throw zongzi into the river to protect Qu Yuan's health, and there is a tradition of eating zongzi. The customs of the Dragon Boat Festival include drinking realgar wine, hanging sachets, arranging calamus flowers, beating herbs and expelling the "five poisons". After the Tang Dynasty, the Dragon Boat Festival became a big festival, which was rewarded by the imperial court. Du Fu has a gift of clothes in the afternoon: "Dragon Boat Festival is an honor."

Step 5 be smart

Traditional folk festivals in China. Also known as Girls' Day or Tanabata. According to legend, after the weaver girl on the east bank of Tianhe married the cowherd in Hexi, the brocade was woven a little slowly, and the emperor was furious, so he drove the weaver girl back and only allowed them to meet on the bridge made of magpies and birds on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month every year. According to folklore, when the cowherd and the weaver girl meet at the Magpie Bridge, the woman makes a colorful building, and the preserved fruit of the old wine is skillful in court (seeking the art of weaving and embroidering).

6. Mid-Autumn Festival

Traditional folk festivals in China. Also known as the reunion festival. August of the lunar calendar is in autumn, and August 15th is in August, so it is called Mid-Autumn Festival. Autumn is crisp and the bright moon is in the sky, so there is a custom of enjoying and offering sacrifices to the moon. The reunion association brought by the full moon makes the Mid-Autumn Festival more deeply rooted in people's hearts. The Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon is more romantic after being associated with Mid-Autumn Festival in Tang Dynasty.

The main customs of Mid-Autumn Festival are appreciating the moon, offering sacrifices to the moon, watching the tide and eating moon cakes. Many poets in the past dynasties wrote poems on the theme of Mid-Autumn Festival. Wei Zhuang's "Send a Scholar to Jingxi": "In August, the Mid-Autumn Festival will be over, and you will be sent to the Mulan boat."

7. Chongyang

Traditional folk festivals in China. The Book of Changes defines "nine" as yang number, and two or nine is important, so the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is "Chongyang". The ancients thought that nine was the number of yang, and the sun and the moon combined nine, which was called Chongyang. In the Double Ninth Festival, the air is crisp in autumn, the wind is clear and the moon is clean, so there are customs such as climbing high and looking far, appreciating chrysanthemums and making poems, drinking chrysanthemum wine and inserting dogwood. Wang Wei's "Thinking of Brothers in Shandong on Vacation in the Mountain": "I know far away where the brothers have climbed, and there is one person missing from the dogwood."

8. Winter solstice festival

In ancient China, people attached great importance to the winter solstice. There is a saying that the winter solstice is as big as a year, and there is a custom to celebrate the winter solstice. "Han Shu" said: "The sun shines on the winter solstice, and you are long, so congratulations." People think that after the winter solstice, the days become longer and longer and the sun rises. This is the beginning of a solar cycle and an auspicious day, which should be celebrated.

The Book of Jin records: "On the winter solstice of Wei and Jin Dynasties, people from all over the world celebrated ... its appearance was not as good as that of Zheng Dan." Explain the ancient emphasis on the winter solstice. In the north of China, there is a custom of slaughtering sheep and eating jiaozi and wonton on the winter solstice, while in the south, there is a custom of eating dumplings and long noodles on the winter solstice. There is also the custom of offering sacrifices to heaven and ancestors in winter solstice in various regions.

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Other traditional festivals in China:

1, the dragon looks up

On February 2nd, the dragon heads up (February 2nd), also known as "Spring Farming Festival", "Farming Festival" and "Spring Dragon Festival", is a traditional folk festival. The story of the dragon looking up comes from ancient astronomy. In ancient times, people used 28 nights to indicate the position of the stars, and judged the seasons accordingly. The ancients divided the astrology near the ecliptic into 28 groups, indicating the positions of the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky, commonly known as "twenty-eight nights", as a reference for astronomical observation.

2. Cold Food Festival

The Cold Food Festival has a long history and is a traditional festival that originated in northern China. The customs of the Cold Food Festival include cold food, fire prohibition and ancestor worship. Because of the cold in the north and the rising temperature in spring and March, it is time to change the fire, so people should ban the fire before the new fire comes. The Cold Food Festival originated from the old habit of changing fire in ancient times, followed by the story of mesons. ?

Legend has it that Zhong Er, the son of the State of Jin who had been exiled for many years in the Spring and Autumn Period, returned to China and acceded to the throne, that is, Jin Wengong, and rewarded the courtiers who fled with him, except Jie Zitui. When Jin Wengong learned about it, he wanted to raise the bonus. He found Mianshan, but he couldn't find it, so he wanted to burn the mountain and force him out. But meson refused to be an official and could not persist. As a result, both mother and son were burned to death.

To commemorate Jiexiu, Jin Wengong changed Mianshan to Jiexiu Mountain, set up a shrine to worship Jiexiu, and designated the day of burning the mountain as the Cold Food Festival. Fireworks are banned nationwide, and only cold food is eaten.

Baidu Encyclopedia-China Traditional Festival