Legends or Stories of Traditional Festivals

Major traditional festivals in China include the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. In addition, all ethnic minorities also keep their own traditional festivals, such as the Water Splashing Festival of the Dai, the Naadam Conference of the Mongols, the Torch Festival of the Yi, the Danu Festival of the Yao, the March Street of the Bai, the Song Wei of the Zhuang, the Tibetan New Year and Wangguo Festival of the Tibetans, and the Flower Jumping Festival of the Miao, and so on.

The Spring Festival is the first traditional festival of the year for Chinese people. In the past, the Spring Festival was called "New Year" because, according to the lunar calendar that has been used throughout Chinese history, it is the first day of the first month, the beginning of a new year. According to records, the Chinese people have been celebrating the Spring Festival for more than 4,000 years, and it was started by Yu Shun. On a day more than 2,000 years B.C., Shun became the son of heaven and led his men to worship heaven and earth. Since then, this day has been regarded as the first day of the year and is considered the first day of the first month. This is said to be the origin of the Lunar New Year, later called the Spring Festival, which was renamed the Spring Festival after the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, when China adopted the Gregorian calendar to celebrate the Chinese New Year (which falls between late January and mid-February on the Gregorian calendar). During the Spring Festival, families put up Spring Festival couplets, post New Year's paintings, and decorate their homes. The night before the Spring Festival is called "New Year's Eve" and is an important time for family reunions, when the whole family gathers for a sumptuous "New Year's Eve Dinner"; many people stay up all night to "observe the New Year". The following day, people start to pay "New Year's Greetings" to the homes of their friends and relatives, greeting each other and wishing all the best for the new year. During the Spring Festival, traditional recreational activities such as lion dances, dragon lantern dances, rowing dry boats and stilt walking are the most common. >>

The 15th day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar is the Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival, the Night of the Yuan, and the Festival of Lights. It is the first full moon night after the Spring Festival. According to legend, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty (179-157 years ago) celebrated Zhou Bo's pacification of Zhu Lu's chaos on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month by going out of the palace to play and have fun with the people on this night, and designated the fifteenth day of the first lunar month as the Lantern Festival. Sima Qian created the Taichu Calendar, which listed the Lantern Festival as a major festival. Since the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties, the festival has been very popular. Sui Shu? Music Zhi" day: "Whenever the first month, all the countries to the court, stay until the 15th in the Duanmen outside the Jianguo Gate, stretching eight miles, the play for the theater," to participate in the songs and dances up to tens of thousands of people from the dusk to the day, to the obscurity and leave. When with the changes in society and the times, the Lantern Festival customs and habits have long had greater changes, but is still a traditional Chinese folk festival. During the Lantern Festival, it is customary to eat Lanterns and watch lanterns. Lanterns are made of glutinous rice flour, covered with fruit and sugar filling, and are round in shape, symbolizing "reunion". The Lantern Festival began in the first century A.D. and is still practiced throughout the world today. Every Lantern Festival night, many cities held lanterns, displaying a variety of colored lanterns, modeling novelty, thousands of forms; in the countryside, it is held recreational activities, such as fireworks, stilt walkers, playing dragon lanterns, twisting rice-planting songs, swinging and so on. >>

China and the Festival in the second month of the lunar calendar, commonly known as dragon head. At this time before and after the hibernation, spring returns to the earth, the recovery of all things, hibernation in the soil or cave insects, snakes and beasts will wake up from hibernation, the legendary dragon also woke up from his slumber, so the name of the dragon head. In ancient times, the dragon was a sacred symbol, so the dragon to expel pests. In the Ming Dynasty, it was popular to smoke insects, and on February 2, people would fry the remaining cakes from the New Year's Day sacrifice in oil to smoke the beds and kangs, which was called smoking insects. In the countryside, the people with grass ash winding around the house in a circle, and then into the yard around the water tank in a circle, in the lead back to the dragon. Interestingly, the food and drink on this day are also named after dragons. Eat dumplings called eat dragon ear, eat spring cake in eat dragon scales, eat noodles called eat dragon beard, now the "dragon beard noodles" is probably the name. Children shave their heads and cut their hair on this day, called "shaving the dragon's head". Women do not move the needle and thread on this day, it is said to avoid hurting the dragon's eye. There are also candles to light the walls of the house, "February 2, light the beams, scorpions and centipedes have no place to hide," the saying. However, this festival has been forgotten, but eating spring cakes and other customs still exist. >>

Tomb-sweeping and ancestor worship on April 5 around the Qingming Festival. The Qingming Festival was also known as the March Festival in ancient times and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar for the Qingming Festival, is one of the twenty-four solar terms. Among the 24 solar terms, only Qingming is both a solar term and a festival. The Qingming Festival was originally a festival to worship ancestors, but nowadays more activities are carried out on this day to visit the tombs of martyrs and pay tribute to the martyrs. At the time of Qingming, the weather turns warm, grass and trees sprout, people often go to the countryside in groups to trekking, kite flying, enjoy the spring scenery, so Qingming Festival is sometimes called "trekking festival". >>

The seventh night of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, known as the "Tanabata", is the legendary day of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden meet every year. It is the night, Chen Gua Guozi in the court, the girls knot colorful wisps, wear seven-hole needle. It is said that the one who finishes first is the most skillful. "Begging for coincidence festival", but also due to the participation of girls, it is called "Maiden Festival". >>

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a remnant of the ancient celestial worship - the custom of honoring the moon. According to the "Zhou Rites - Spring Officials" records, the Zhou Dynasty, there has been a "Mid-Autumn night to welcome the cold", "Mid-Autumn offer good fur", "Autumn equinox sunset (moon worship)" activities; Han Dynasty, and in the Mid-Autumn or Autumn Festival Day Han Dynasty, and on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival or the first day of the Autumn Festival, to honor the old, old age, given to Xiong rough cake. Jin also have the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, but not too common; until the Tang Dynasty will be the Mid-Autumn Festival and the storage of e moon, Wu Gang fell laurel, Jade Rabbit pounding medicine, Yang Guifei into the moon god, Tang Ming Huang tour of the Moon Palace and other myths combined, so that it is full of romantic colors, play the wind of the moon before the great rise.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the 15th of August was officially designated as the Mid-Autumn Festival, and there was a festival food of "small cakes like chewing the moon, with crispy and syrupy". Meng Yuanlao "Tokyo Dreaming Records" said: "Mid-Autumn Festival night, the noble family decorative pavilions, the folk fight to take over the restaurant to play the moon"; and "the string heavy boiling, near the residents of Naiyen, late at night when I heard the sound of the sheng yao, like the clouds outside. Between the children, even the night wedding play; night market parallel, to the dawn." Wu Zimu "dream beam record" said: "this time the golden phoenix recommended cool, jade dew cool, Dan Gui fragrance, silver toad full of light. Princes, grandchildren, rich families, all climbed the dangerous building, Linxuan play the moon, or open the wide pavilion, tortoise feast lined up, the zither clanging, wine and song, in order to divine the joy of the night. As for the house of the store, also climbed a small platform, arrange family feasts, the group around the children, to reward the festival. Although the poor basket of people in the ugly alleys, the farmers city wine, reluctantly welcome the joy, and refused to waste time. This night, the sky street selling and buying, until five drums, play the moon tourists, granny in the city, to burn endless." More interestingly, the "new Drunkard's Record" describes the custom of moon worship: "The children of the people of the city are not rich or poor, but can walk on their own to twelve or thirteen, and all of them are decorated with adult's eyes, and they climb up to the building or atrium to burn incense and worship the moon, and each of them has its own direction; the men would like to walk to the Toad Palace and climb up to the Immortal Laurel. ...The women would like to look like Chang'e and be as round as the moon."

Ming and Qing dynasties of the moon activities, prevalent. "The fruit and cakes of the festival must be round"; every family must set up a "moonlight place" and "pay homage to the moon" in the direction of the moonrise. Lu Qihong, "Beijing Years of Chinese Records", "Mid-Autumn Festival night, the family set the Moon Palace Fu image, Fu on the free as a person standing; Chen fruits and melons in the court, the cake surface painted Moon Palace toad free; men and women worship burn incense, Dan and burned." Tian Rucheng "West Lake Tourism Zhiyu" cloud: "is the night, people have a moonlight feast, or with the Park Lake boat, along the tour all day. Above the Su Causeway, the joint song, no different from the day"; "folk invited to the moon cake, take the meaning of reunion". Fucha Dun Chong "Yanjing times" said: "mid-autumn mooncake, before the door to the beauty of the Zhimai for the first in Kyoto, other places are not enough to eat. Presented to the moon moon cake everywhere. Bigger than a foot, painted on the moon palace wax rabbit shape." "every Mid-Autumn Festival, the House of Jumon all to moon cakes and fruit gifts. When the moon is full on the fifteenth day of the month, fruits and melons are displayed in the courtroom for the moon, and the beans and chickpeas are sacrificed. At that time, the white spirit is in the sky, the colorful clouds are dispersed, the cups are passed and the children are noisy, it is really the so-called festive season. The only thing is that the men do not bow to the moon when it is offered." At the same time, in the past five hundred years, there were also "burning incense", "walking on the moon", "releasing lanterns", "tree mid-autumn festival", "lighting pagoda lanterns", "burning incense", "walking on the moon", "releasing lanterns", "tree mid-autumn festival", and "lighting pagoda lanterns". The festival activities include "Moon Walking", "Release of Sky Lanterns", "Tree Mid-Autumn Festival", "Lighting of Pagoda Lanterns", "Dance of the Fire Dragon", "Trailing of Stones", and "Selling of Rabbits". The custom of enjoying the moon, eating mooncakes, and having a reunion dinner has been passed down to this day. In Qu Yuan's "A Journey to the Far East", he wrote: "Setting up the Chung Yeung Festival to enter the Emperor's Palace, and creating the Lunar Beginning of the Festival to observe the Qing Dynasty". The word "Chongyang" here refers to the day, not yet to the festival. Cao Pi, the Emperor of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, in his "Book of the Ninth Day and Zhong Yao", clearly wrote about the Chongyang feast: "The years go by and the months come and go, and suddenly it is the ninth day of the ninth month. Nine is the number of yang, and the sun and the moon should be together, so the common people honored its name and thought it was suitable for a long time, so they used it to enjoy the banquet."

Tao Yuanming, a literati of the Jin Dynasty, said in the preface to the poem "Nine Days of Idleness": "I live in idleness, love the name of the ninth. Autumn chrysanthemums fill the garden, while holding the mash by and by, empty clothing nine Chinese, sends the mind to the words." Here both chrysanthemum and wine are mentioned. Probably in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Chongyang Day has been the practice of drinking wine, chrysanthemum appreciation. By the Tang Dynasty Chongyang was officially designated as a folk festival.

During the Ming Dynasty, on the 9th day of the 9th month, the whole palace had to eat flower cakes together to celebrate the occasion, and the emperor had to climb to Mount Banzai in person in order to enjoy the autumn spirit, a custom that was passed down until the Qing Dynasty.

The legend of Chongyang Festival

Like most traditional festivals, Chongyang Festival has an ancient legend.

Legend has it that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a plague demon in the River Ru, and as soon as it appeared, people fell ill in every house and people lost their lives every day, and the people in the area suffered from the ravages of the plague demon.

A plague claimed the parents of a young man, Hengjing, and he himself was nearly killed by the disease. After recovering from the disease, he left his beloved wife and his folks, and resolved to go out and visit the immortals to learn the art of ridding the people of the plague. Hengjing went around to visit the famous masters and masters, and finally found out that there is the oldest mountain in the east, and there is an immortal with infinite magic power on the mountain. Hengjing, undaunted by the difficulties and dangers and the long distance, was guided by the crane, and finally found the mountain, and the immortal with the magical magic power. Hengjing was touched by his spirit and finally took him in and taught him the art of demon-slaying. Hengjing was able to practice hard and sleeplessly, and finally developed an extraordinary martial arts skill.

This day, the fairy chief called Hengjing to him and said, "Tomorrow is the ninth day of the ninth month, the plague demon will come out to do evil again, you have learned your skill, you should go back to get rid of the evil for the people. He gave Hengjing a packet of cornelian cherry leaves and a cup of chrysanthemum wine, and taught Hengjing how to avoid the evil spirits, so that Hengjing could ride a crane and hurry back home.

Hengjing returned to his hometown, and on the morning of the ninth day of the ninth month, he led the townspeople to a nearby mountain according to the immortal chief's instructions, and gave each of them a piece of cornelian cherry leaf, a cup of chrysanthemum wine, and made preparations to subdue the evil spirits. At noon, with a few screams, the plague of the devil rushed out of the Ru River, but the plague of the devil just jumped to the bottom of the mountain, suddenly smelled a burst of cornelian cherry and chrysanthemum wine, will stop, face suddenly changed, then Hengjing holding demon sword chased down the mountain, a few rounds on the Wen devil stabbed to death under the sword, from the first nine days of September to climb up to the custom of avoiding the epidemic year after year passed down. Wu Jun, a native of Liang, wrote about this in his book Qi Harmony Records.

The custom of ascending the heights on the Chongyang Festival was later regarded as an activity to avoid disasters and calamities. In addition, in the traditional concept of the Central Plains people, the double nine is also the meaning of long life, health and longevity, so later the Chongyang Festival was established as the Festival of the Elderly.

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