Customs of Traditional Festivals

1. New Year's Eve - the 29th or 30th day of the 12th lunar month.

Customs: Eating a reunion dinner, making sacrifices, and staying up all night to observe the New Year.

On New Year's Eve, people often stay up all night, which is called the "New Year's Watch". On the day of New Year's Eve, the house is cleaned and cleaned, and door gods, spring couplets, New Year's paintings, window decals and lucky charms are put on. People change into new clothes with festive colors and patterns.

2. Spring Festival - the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar.

Customs: The Spring Festival is generally characterized by eating rice cakes, dumplings, dumplings, meatballs, whole fish, wine, apples, peanuts, melon seeds, candies, etc.; setting off firecrackers, giving New Year's money, paying respect to the New Year, visiting relatives, sending New Year's gifts, going to the graves of the ancestors, visiting the Flower Market, social festivals, and other activities, which is a great joy for the whole family.

The Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese festival in which families eat a reunion dinner and watch the Spring Festival gala together.

3. Lantern Festival - the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar.

Customs: watching lanterns, eating Lantern Festival, walking on stilts, guessing lantern riddles.

The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, the ancients called it "night", and the fifteenth day is the first full moon night of the year, so the first month of the fifteenth for the Lantern Festival. It is also known as the Small New Year's Day, the Lantern Festival, or the Lantern Festival, and is the first important festival after the Spring Festival. China's vast territory, a long history, so the customs of the Lantern Festival are not the same in all parts of the country, including eating Lantern Festival, lanterns, dragon dance, lion dance, etc. is the Lantern Festival several important folk customs.

4, Cold Food Festival - (the day before the Qingming Festival).

Customs: start a fire to burn rice, eat cold food.

Banning fireworks and eating only cold food. And in the development of the later generations gradually added sweeping, trekking, swing, cuju, pull hooks, cockfighting and other customs, cold food festival before and after the extension of more than two thousand years, was once known as the first Chinese folk festival day. The Cold Food Festival is the only one of the traditional Chinese festivals to be named after a food custom.

During this fireless time, people must prepare enough cooked food to survive the day in the cold, i.e. "cold food", hence the name "Cold Food Festival". Cold Food Festival stretches before and after more than two thousand years, known as the first folk festival.

5, Qingming Festival - (around April 5, Gregorian calendar).

Customs: sweeping graves, trekking.

Spring breeze warms the Qingming Festival, trekking to the ancestors to remember the ancestors. Qingming Tomb Sweeping and Sacrifice, remembering the ancestors to send condolences, is conducive to the promotion of filial piety and affection, awakening the family *** with the memory of the family members and even the national cohesion and sense of identity.

Customs of the Qingming Festival is rich and interesting, in addition to preaching the ban on fire, sweeping the tomb, there are a series of customs and sports activities such as trekking, swinging, kicking Cuju, playing polo, willow and so on.

6, Dragon Boat Festival - the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

Customs: eating dumplings, dragon boat racing.

Duanwu Festival is the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar every year, also known as the Duanyang Festival, Wuzhi Festival, May Festival, summer 5, heavy five, etc.. Duanwu Festival is a traditional festival of Chinese Han people to commemorate Qu Yuan.

The Dragon Boat Festival has the custom of eating zongzi, racing dragon boats, hanging calamus, artemisia, moxa, fumigation Cangzhu, Angelica dahurica, and drinking Xionghuang wine. This day's activities are now gradually evolved into eating zongzi, dragon boat racing, with five-color thread, making scented sachets, door inserted Ai.

7, Tanabata Festival - the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Customs: threading needles and begging for coquettish objects, praying for blessings and longevity, worshiping the Seven Sisters, and women's red.

The Tanabata Festival is one of the most romantic of China's traditional festivals, but also in the past the most important day of the girls. Legend has it that on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar or the night of the sixth day of the seventh month of the women in the courtyard to the Weaving Maiden star begging for wisdom, so it is known as "begging for coincidence."

Women wear needles begging for coincidence, praying for blessings and longevity of the activities of the Seven Sisters of Worship, the ceremony is pious and grand, the display of flowers and fruits, women's red, all kinds of furniture, appliances are beautifully small and attractive.

8, Zhongyuan Festival: the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

Customs: release of river lanterns, ancestor worship, the soul of the dead, burning paper ingots.

Significance: commonly known as the Ghost Festival, ancestor worship, release of water lanterns.

The Mid-Yuan Festival was originally a small autumn festival in which a number of crops ripened, and it was customary for people to worship their ancestors, offer new rice and other sacrifices, and report the success of the autumn to their ancestors. Therefore, every year, every family sacrifices to their ancestors on the Mid-Yuan Festival, and performs the same rituals when making offerings. On the 15th of July, they visit the tombs and pay homage to their ancestors.

Legend has it that all ghosts will be released from the netherworld on the Day of the Mid-Yuan Festival, and it is common for people to make sacrifices to the ghosts. Where there is a new mourning family, it is customary to go to the new tomb, while generally in the local area to sacrifice lonely souls and wild ghosts, which has become one of the biggest festivals of Chinese folk rituals.

9, Mid-Autumn Festival - the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar.

Customs: enjoying the moon, eating moon cakes.

Mid-Autumn Festival moon worship is a very ancient custom in China. The custom of enjoying the moon is derived from the moon festival, and the seriousness of the festival is turned into a light-hearted entertainment. The "folk moon worship" has become a way for people to long for reunion, happiness and well-being, and to send their love to the moon.

Set up a large incense burner and offer mooncakes, watermelons, apples, jujubes, plums, grapes and other offerings, of which mooncakes and watermelons are absolutely indispensable.

10, Chongyang Festival - the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar.

Customs: climbing up and inserting cornelian cherry.

The Chrysanthemum Festival, also known as Chrysanthemum Festival, Sunshine Autumn Festival, "Treading Autumn", for the first nine days of September in the lunar calendar each year, a traditional Chinese festival. Celebration of the festival generally includes activities such as going out to enjoy the fall, climbing up to a high altitude, viewing chrysanthemums, inserting dogwoods all over the place, eating chrysanthemum cakes, and drinking chrysanthemum wine.

The Chrysanthemum Festival, along with the Spring Festival on the third day of March, is a time for families to come out of their rooms, and all their relatives to climb to the top of the hill together to avoid disasters. Autumn and September, high and clear, this season can be achieved by climbing high and looking far away from the heart, fitness to get rid of the purpose of the disease.

11, winter solstice: December 21, 22 or 23 every year.

Customs: eating dumplings, eating dumplings, drinking mutton soup.

Significance: the beginning of winter, offerings to heaven and ancestors.

After the winter solstice, the days get longer and longer, and the yang qi rises back up, the beginning of a cycle of festivals. Northern regions have the custom of slaughtering sheep, eating dumplings and wontons on the winter solstice, while southern regions have the custom of eating winter solstice rice balls and winter solstice long thread noodles on this day. All regions offer sacrifices to heaven and ancestors on the day of the winter solstice.

12, Lapa Festival: the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.

Customs: eating Lapa congee, Lapa garlic, Lapa noodles.

Significance: worship ancestors and gods, pray for a good harvest and good luck.

The arrival of the Lapa Festival means that the traditional Chinese New Year is getting closer and closer, and the strong flavor of the New Year is spreading in the air. A bowl of hot Laha congee on this fragrant Lunar New Year's Day not only nourishes the body, but also signifies a good harvest.

13, sacrificial stove: lunar month 23 or 24.

Customs: dust, eat stove sugar.

Significance: the day of Zao Wang Wang to heaven.

Lunar New Year's Eve is also regarded as the beginning of the New Year, Zaos Festival in ancient times, its status is second only to the Mid-Autumn Festival, ancient times outside the official, business or study, are in the Zaos Festival before the day to rush home to reunion, eat home-made Zaos candy, in order to Zaos God blessing, the whole family peace in the coming year.