The Customs and Significance of Traditional Festivals in China

Traditional festivals and customs in China.

& ltP> Spring Festival is 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.

& ltP> Lantern Festival is a traditional folk festival in China. Also known as the first half of the first month, Shangyuan Festival and Lantern Festival. 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. The custom of eating Yuanxiao began in the Song Dynasty. 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.

& ltP> Cold Food Festival is a traditional folk festival in China. Fireworks are strictly prohibited during festivals, and only cold food can be eaten. Winter to the future 105 or 106 days, one or two days before Qingming. According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhong Er, the son of the Jin Dynasty, was exiled, and the minister Jiezitui cut off his shares. After Zhong Er proclaimed himself emperor, he made great contributions, but he didn't enjoy meson push. Zitui lives in seclusion in the mountains. Zhong Er was ashamed, so he let Yamakaji go and forced him to come out to be rewarded. The child was burned to death because he couldn't get out of the Woods. Therefore, Zhong Er ordered not to make a fire to cook on this day every year to commemorate Zitui and express his condemnation of his mistakes. Because cold food is close to Qingming time, later generations regard the custom of cold food as one of Qingming customs.

& ltP> Tomb-Sweeping Day is a traditional folk festival 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. Scholars of all ages wrote poems on the theme of Qingming.

& ltP> Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional folk festival in China. Also known as Duanyang, Chongwu and Chongwu. 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. Qu Yuan was loyal and drowned himself, so people ate zongzi and held dragon boat races to mourn him. The customs of the Dragon Boat Festival include drinking realgar wine, hanging sachets, eating zongzi, arranging calamus flowers, beating herbs and expelling the "five poisons".

& ltP> Jojo China traditional folk festival. 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. Or: the weaver girl in the sky married the cowherd on the ground, and the queen mother took the weaver girl back to the sky and only allowed them to meet at the annual magpie bridge. On the evening of the seventh day of July every year, when the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd reunite, women will put incense tables and thread needles to ask the Weaver Girl for advice on weaving and embroidery skills. Listening to the conversation between the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl under the grape trellis is also an interesting thing on July 7.

& ltP> Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional folk festival 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. Many poets in the past dynasties wrote poems on the theme of Mid-Autumn Festival. The main customs of Mid-Autumn Festival are appreciating the moon, offering sacrifices to the moon, watching the tide and eating moon cakes.

& ltP> Double Ninth Festival is a traditional folk festival 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". 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. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a poem "Cornus officinalis is all over the ground, but one person is missing".

& ltP> China traditional folk festivals in Latin America. This is an ancient festival, offering sacrifices to ancestors, gods and harvest at the end of the year. The twelfth lunar month is usually held in the last month of each year, and it was fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. There are customs such as eating red bean porridge and offering sacrifices to ancestors. Buddhist Laba porridge has also penetrated into Laba customs.

& ltP> New Year's Eve is a traditional folk festival in China. On the evening of Lunar New Year1February 30th, every household is cleaning the house, putting on rich dishes and having a "New Year's Eve" with the whole family. This night, everyone stays up all night, or drinks and chats, or plays chess by guessing. This is the so-called "guarding the old age". At zero o'clock, people rushed out and gathered a fire in front of the court (called "Tingliao" in ancient times, which means prosperity). At the time of the "three yuan" of "year yuan, month yuan and time yuan", three "celestial cannons" were released in order to develop and prosper first. At this time, firecrackers and cheers were connected together, and there was a scene of "removing the old year from firecrackers".