How many festivals are there in China?

The twelve traditional Chinese festivals are Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Cold Food Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata Festival, Mid-Yuan Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chungyang Festival, Lapa Festival, Lunar New Year's Day and New Year's Eve. Traditional Chinese festivals (traditional Chinese festivals) are part of the long history and culture of the Chinese nation. Its form is diverse, rich in content, most of the primitive beliefs, celestial phenomena, calendar, mathematics and later divided into festivals related to the record of the Chinese ancestors rich and colorful social life and cultural content, precipitation of the profound historical and cultural connotations.

China's twelve traditional festivals are as follows:

1, Spring Festival

The first day of the first month of the Spring Festival, for the beginning of the new year, is the Chinese nation's grandest traditional festival. The Spring Festival originated in the Yin Shang period at the end of the year to sacrifice to the gods and ancestors, is China's grandest, most lively and most important of an ancient traditional festivals. The main activities of the festival include paying homage to the New Year, putting up Spring Festival couplets, setting off firecrackers and making dumplings. Poems describing the Spring Festival include Wang Anshi's "New Year's Day" in the Northern Song Dynasty: "A year is over in the sound of firecrackers, and the spring breeze sends warmth into the tusu. Thousands of households pupil day, always put the new peach for the old symbol.

2, Lantern Festival

The 15th day of the first month for the Lantern Festival, also known as the first year, the first night, the night of the first year, there is the custom of watching the lanterns, eating Lantern Festival (dumplings). The south packs the dumplings and the north rolls the Lantern Festival. Poems describing the Lantern Festival include Song Dynasty writer Ouyang Xiu's lyric "Sheng Chazi ● Yuanxi":Last year on the night of the Lantern, the lanterns in the flower market were as bright as day. Last year, on New Year's Eve, the lanterns in the flower market were as bright as day. This year's New Year's Eve, the moon and lights are still the same. I don't see last year's people, and my sleeves are wet with tears. Since the Tang Dynasty, there has been a folk custom of watching lanterns on the night. Northern Song Dynasty from fourteen to sixteen three days, open curfew, tour lantern street flower market, all-night singing and dancing, unprecedented, but also young people honey about the secluded, a good opportunity to talk about love.

3, Cold Food Festival

Cold Food in the Qingming two days before or one day, no fire, eat cold food for three days. Legend has it that when the Duke of Jin Wen was in exile, Jie Zi push had cut shares for him to fill his hunger, but after the Duke of Jin Wen returned to the country as the king, the partition forgot Jie Zi push, and Jie Zi push is not willing to boast of his achievements to compete for favor, so with his mother to live in seclusion, and then the Duke of Jin Wen repeatedly asked Jie Zi push out of the mountain, he was unwilling to serve as a government official, and finally the Duke of Jin set the mountain on fire, and Jie Zi push embracing his mother burned to death under the tree. Later generations to commemorate the loyalty and righteousness, in the day of the death of jiezi push no fire, eat cold food.

4, Qingming Festival

Qingming Festival is April 5 every year, the main activity is to sweep the tomb and trekking. Qingming is also one of the 24 solar terms. Poems describing the Qingming Festival include Du Mu's "Qingming" in the Tang Dynasty: "The rain falls one after another during the Qingming Festival, and the pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Where can I find a tavern? The shepherd boy pointed to the apricot blossom village.

5, Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival is the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, customary dragon boat races, eating zongzi, picking mugwort leaves, tie the red thread and so on. It is said to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan, who threw himself into the Miluo River on this day.

6, Tanabata Festival

Tanabata for the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, also known as the Begging for Coincidence Festival, according to legend, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden every year on this night through the River in the sky to meet, women set up the wine preserved fruits and melons in the court in front of the moon with the five-color line wearing seven-hole needles, over the coquettish, so-called Begging for Coincidence. The Tanabata Festival can be said to be China's Valentine's Day. Poems describing the Tanabata include Qin Guan's Magpie Bridge Immortal: The golden wind and jade dew are better than countless other things on earth when they meet. Tenderness is like water, good time is like a dream, and I can't bear to look at the return road of the Magpie Bridge. If two love is long time, and not in the morning and evening.

7, Zhongyuan Festival

Zhongyuan for the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the old Taoist temple in this day for the Jiaojiao to feed the evil spirits, monks and temples to make loved ones out of the evil spirit of the Road, and then gradually into the Ghost Festival, the folk of the day there are sacrifices to the deceased relatives and other activities.

8, Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival is the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the middle of the three months of autumn. At this time around the autumnal equinox, high and clear, the moon looks brighter and brighter when it is full, for the time of family reunion. In this festival family reunion, enjoy the moon, moon festival, eat moon cakes and so on. Legend has it that it is in honor of Chang'e.

Mid-Autumn Festival food first moon cakes, its origin said a variety of. Said the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Jiangsu Province, Taizhou, anti-Yuan uprising leader Zhu Yuanzhang's strategist Liu Bowen use of the Mid-Autumn Festival people to give each other round cake, in the cake with "August 15 night kill Tartars," the note, everyone saw the note in the cake, a pass ten, ten pass a hundred, such as the appointment in the night together with the hand to kill the vicious "" (Tartars). Tartars" (Yuan soldiers), after the family ate cakes to celebrate the victory of the uprising, and officially called the Mid-Autumn Festival round cake for the moon cake.

9, Chung Yeung Festival

Chung Yeung for the ninth day of September, nine for the pole of the Yang number, hence the name. This day has the habit of climbing high, enjoying chrysanthemums, drinking wine and wearing cornelian cherry. It is now designated as the Day of the Elderly. I know that the brothers climbed high, all inserted cornelian cherry less a person.

10, Lahai Festival

The winter solstice is the shortest day, the ancients regarded it as the beginning of the festival, to celebrate the ritual activities. In ancient times, at the end of the year to hold a wax festival, the day is called wax day (date is not certain), the month is called wax month. Buddhist legend says that Sakyamuni became Taoist on the eighth day of the twelfth month, so Buddhist temples to cook porridge on this day to honor the Buddha, affected by this, the folk will be set on this day (i.e., Lahai), and cook Lahai congee.

11, Xiaonian

Xiaonian for December 23 or 24 (now 23rd), also known as Zaozao Day, it is said that Zao Wang is God sent to the folk of the guardian God, every year on this day to report on the folk of the day good and evil, so this day Zaozao, expect to God to say good things about themselves, the formation of the Chinese people eat Zaozao candy in Xiaonian. This day is mainly dust sweeping, sacrificial stove and so on.

12, New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is the last night of the year, the old year to the end of this evening, the next day is the new year, so called. Customs are to avoid evil spirits (burning firecrackers), the New Year's Eve, eat a reunion dinner.