Introducing Traditional Chinese Festivals

1. Spring Festival, the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, also known as the lunar year, commonly known as "New Year". It is one of the grandest and most lively traditional festivals in China. The Spring Festival has a long history, it originated in the Yin Shang period at the end of the year the gods and ancestors activities.

& /

The Spring Festival is here, which means that spring will come, the recovery of the grass and trees renewed, a new round of sowing and harvesting season will begin. People have just spent a long winter of ice and snow, and have long been looking forward to the days of spring, when the new spring is coming, naturally, we must be full of joy to meet the festival with songs and dances.

Over the centuries, people make the New Year celebrations have become very colorful, every year from the 23rd day of the lunar month to the 30th, the folk called this period of time "Spring Day", also known as the "dust day", in the Spring Festival before the dust to engage in sanitation, is a traditional habit of our people. Our people have traditional habits.

/

Then it is the family to prepare for the New Year's goods, about ten days before the festival, people began to busy purchasing items, New Year's goods, including chickens, ducks, fish, meat, tea, wine, oil and soy sauce, North and South fried goods, sugar bait fruit, are to buy enough, but also to prepare for some of the New Year's Eve when visiting friends and relatives when the gift, the children to add a new coat and a new hat, ready for the New Year when to wear.

% /

Prior to the festival in the residence of the door to paste the red paper and yellow characters of the New Year's message, that is, written in red paper Spring Festival couplets. Inside the house posted brightly colored auspicious New Year's paintings, clever girls cut out beautiful window flowers and paste them on the windows, hanging red lanterns or sticking the word "Fortune" and the God of Wealth, the God of the Door, etc., the word "Fortune" can also be pasted upside down, passers-by read the word "Fortune" upside down, that is, Fortune, all of these activities are intended to add enough festive atmosphere for the holiday.

Another name for the Spring Festival is the New Year. In past legends, Nian was an imaginary animal that brought bad luck to people. When the year came. Trees wither and no grass grows; once the year passes, everything grows and flowers are everywhere. How can the year pass? Need to bombard with firecrackers , so there is the custom of burning firecrackers, which is actually another way to bake a lively scene.

The Spring Festival is a happy and peaceful holiday, but also the reunion of loved ones, children away from home in the Spring Festival to go home to celebrate. The night before the New Year's Eve, is the old year's Lunar New Year's Eve, also known as New Year's Eve, also known as the reunion night, in this time of transition between the old and the new, the New Year's Eve is one of the most important annual activities, New Year's Eve night, the whole family stay up to keep watch together, get together to drink soundly, *** enjoy the joy of family, the northern region in the New Year's Eve to eat dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, and the word is together; dumplings and dumplings and cross the harmony of the meaning, but also take more years of intercourse The dumplings have the meaning of "getting together" and "turning over the year". In the south, it is customary to eat New Year's cake on New Year's Day, a sweet and sticky cake that symbolizes the sweetness of life in the new year.

To the first rooster crows, or the New Year's bells ringing, the street firecrackers, loud and clear, the family is full of joy, the new year began, men and women, young and old, dressed in festive attire, the first to the elders of the family New Year's Eve wishes, the festival there are to the children of the New Year's Eve money to eat New Year's Eve dinner, the second and third began to go to relatives to see their friends and to pay tribute to each other, congratulations on the blessing, say some Congratulations to the new happy, Congratulations on the new year, congratulations, congratulations, good New Year and other words, ancestor worship and other activities.

The warm atmosphere of the festival is not only overflowing in every household, but also full of streets and alleys, some places on the market there are lions, dragon lanterns, fireworks, swim in the flower market, temple and other customs. During this period of lanterns all over the city, the streets are full of tourists, bustling, unprecedented, straight to the first month of the 15th Lantern Festival, the Spring Festival is really the end.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival of the Han Chinese people, but the Manchu, Mongolia, Yao, Zhuang, white, mountain, Hezhe, Hani, Daur, Dong, Li and other dozens of ethnic minorities also have the custom of the Spring Festival, but the form of the festival is more of their own national characteristics, more flavorful.... ...

2. Every year, on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, just after the Spring Festival, ushered in the traditional Chinese festival - Lantern Festival.

/

The first month of the lunar calendar is the first month of the year, and the ancients called the night "night", so they called the fifteenth day of the first month the Lantern Festival. The 15th day of the first month is the first full moon of the year, but also the beginning of the year, the night of the earth back to spring, people celebrate this, but also to celebrate the continuation of the New Year. The Lantern Festival is also known as the "Festival of the New Year".

According to Chinese folk tradition, on this day the moon is high in the night, people have to point up ten thousand colored lanterns, to show the celebration. Going out to enjoy the moon, burning lanterns and fireworks, guessing lantern riddles, *** eating Lantern Festival, family reunion, celebrating the festive season, a happy and harmonious.

w /

The Lantern Festival is also known as the Festival of Lights, Lantern Lantern custom since the Han Dynasty, to the Tang Dynasty, more prosperous lantern-appreciation activities, the palace, hanging lights everywhere on the street, but also to establish a tall lamp wheel, lamps, lamps, and lamps, the Tang Dynasty, the great poet Lu Zhaolian had in the "fifteenth night to see the lanterns," which describes the lanterns of the Lantern Festival in this way "to catch the Han suspected that the stars fall, according to the building like the moon. The moon is hanging."

/

The Song Dynasty attached more importance to the Lantern Festival, more lively lantern-viewing activities, lantern-viewing activities to be carried out for five days, the style of the lamp is also more abundant. In the Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was held for 10 days, which was the longest Lantern Festival in China. Although the Qing Dynasty lantern-viewing activities only 3 days, but the lantern-viewing activities on a large scale, unprecedented, in addition to burning lights, but also fireworks to help.

"Guess the lantern riddles", also called "playing lantern riddles", is an activity added after the Lantern Festival, appeared in the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the capital city of Lin'an made riddles every Lantern Festival, and there were a lot of people guessing riddles. At the beginning of the riddles were written on strips of paper and pasted on colorful lanterns for people to guess. Because the riddles can inspire wisdom and interest, so the process of circulation is very popular among all social classes.

The folk custom of eating Lantern Festival. Lanterns are made of glutinous rice, either solid or with filling. The fillings include bean paste, sugar, hawthorn, and various kinds of fruits, etc. They can be boiled, fried, steamed, or deep-fried when eaten. At first, people called this food "floating rounds", and later called "soup dumplings" or "soup dumplings", the names "reunion

Some places of the Lantern Festival and the custom of "walking a hundred diseases", also known as "baked hundred diseases" "scattered hundred diseases", the participants are mostly women, they walk in pairs or walk along the wall, or across the bridge, walking in the countryside, or in the countryside, or across the bridge, walking in the countryside, or across the bridge, walking in the countryside, or in the countryside, or in the countryside, or in the countryside. or cross the bridge and walk in the countryside, the purpose is to drive away diseases and disasters.

With the passage of time, more and more activities of the Lantern Festival, many local festivals have increased the number of dragon lanterns, lions, stilt walkers, rowing the dry boat twisting rice-planting songs, playing the drums and other traditional folk performances. This traditional festival, which has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, is not only prevalent on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but is also celebrated year after year in overseas Chinese settlements....

3. Qingming is one of the twenty-four solar terms in China. Since the 24 solar terms reflect the changes in temperature, rainfall and weather conditions throughout the year in a more objective way, the ancient working people used them to organize their agricultural activities. Huainanzi (淮南子). Tianwenxun" said, "Fifteen days after the vernal equinox, the bucket points to B, then the wind of Qingming arrives." According to the "time of the year and a hundred questions": "Everything grows at this time, are clean and clear. Therefore, it is called Qingming." Qingming, the temperature rises, the rainfall increases, it is a good time for spring plowing and planting. Therefore, there are "before and after the Qingming, point melon planting beans", "planting trees, no more than the Qingming" proverbs. It can be seen that this festival has a close relationship with agricultural production.

But, as a festival, Qingming is different from a pure festival. The festival is a sign of the change of climate and the order of seasons in China, while the festival contains certain customary activities and some kind of commemorative significance.

Y /

The Qingming Festival is a traditional festival in China and the most important festival of worship, a day of ancestor worship and tomb-sweeping. Tomb-sweeping is commonly known as visiting the graves, an activity to honor the dead. Most Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities sweep their tombs on Qingming Day.

According to the old custom, when sweeping tombs, people should bring wine, food, fruits, paper money and other items to the graveyard, offer the food in front of their loved ones' graves, then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, fold a few young green branches and stick them on the graves, and then kowtow and worship, and then eat the wine and food and go home at last. Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled "Qingming": "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 points to the apricot blossom village." It writes about the special atmosphere of Qingming Festival.

The Qingming Festival, also known as the Treading Green Festival, according to the solar calendar, it is between April 4 and 6 every year, it is the bright and beautiful spring grass and trees spit out the green season, but also it is the people of the spring tour (called trekking in ancient times) is a good time, so the ancients have the Qingming trekking, and to carry out a series of sports activities of the custom.

Art China /

Till today, the custom of worshipping ancestors and mourning deceased relatives on Qingming Festival is still very popular.... ...

4. The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional Chinese folk festival, which is one of the ancient traditional festivals of the Chinese nation. Duanwu is also known as Duanwu, Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many aliases, such as: Wuzhi Festival, Chongwu Festival, May Festival, Bathing Orchid Festival, Daughter's Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Earth Waxing, Poet's Festival, Dragon Day and so on. Although the name is different, but on the whole, the people around the custom of the festival or more than different.

Over the Dragon Boat Festival, is the Chinese people more than two thousand years of traditional habits, due to the vast area, many ethnic groups, coupled with many stories and legends, so not only produced a number of different names of the festival, but also has different customs. Its content is mainly: the daughter back to his mother's home, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcome the ghost ship, avoiding Wu, posting Wu Ye Fu, hanging calamus, wormwood, swim in a hundred diseases, Pei Xiangbao, ready to sweet, dragon boat racing, martial arts, batting, swinging, to the children painted with xionghuang, drinking xionghuang liquor, calamus wine, eat five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, zongzi and seasonal fruits, etc., in addition to superstitious color of the activities have gradually disappeared, the rest of the so far spread all over China and the neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat races, have been newly developed, breaking through time and geographical boundaries to become international sporting events.

Art China /

On the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are many ways of saying, such as: to commemorate the Qu Yuan; to commemorate the Wu Zixu; to commemorate the Cao E; from the three generations of the summer solstice festival; the bad month and the bad day to drive to avoid that, Wu Yue national totem festival said and so on. Each of the above said, each of its origin. According to scholars Mr. Wen Yiduo's "Dragon Boat Festival" and "Dragon Boat Festival of the history of education" listed more than a hundred ancient records and expert archaeological evidence, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, is the ancient Chinese southern Wu Yue national totem festival, earlier than Qu Yuan. However, over the centuries, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been widely and y rooted in people's hearts, so people "cherish and mourn them, and the world discusses their words in order to pass them on to each other", therefore, commemorating Qu Yuan's words has the widest and deepest impact, and occupies a mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, the Chinese people to the Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race and eat zongzi, etc., are associated with the commemoration of Qu Yuan.

- /

To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and grand festival among the Chinese people.

5. In China, the night of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the weather is warm, the grass and trees fragrant, which is commonly known as the Tanabata Festival, also known as the "Begging for coincidence" or "Daughter's Day", which is one of the most romantic of the traditional Chinese festivals, and also the most romantic of the girls' festivals in the past. This is one of the most romantic of the traditional Chinese festivals, and it is also the most important day for the girls in the past.

On a clear summer and fall night, the stars in the sky shine brightly, and a white Milky Way runs across the north and south, and on the east and west sides of the river, there is a shining star on each side of the river, looking across the river, facing each other from afar, and that is the Altair and Vega stars.

Art China /

Sitting down to watch Altair and Vega on the eve of the seventh day of the seventh month is a folk custom. According to legend, on this night every year, it is the time when the Weaving Maiden meets with the Cowherd at the Magpie Bridge in the sky. The Weaving Maiden is a beautiful, clever, dexterous nymphs, the mortal women will be begging for her wisdom and skill on this night, but also to her to ask for the gift of marriage, so the seventh day of the seventh month is also known as the Begging for coincidence festival.

People say that on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month, they can look up and see the Milky Way meeting of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, or they can overhear the pulsating words of love between the two men meeting in the sky under the shelf of melons and fruits.

Girls in this night full of romance, the sky's bright moon, seasonal fruits and melons, towards the sky to worship, begging the goddess in the sky to give them a clever mind and dexterous hands, so that their knitting skills skill, but also begging for love and marriage marriage coincidental match. In the past, marriage was a lifelong event for women to decide whether they would be happy or not, so countless men and women in love in the world would pray to the starry sky on this night, when the night is quiet and people are deep, to pray for the fulfillment of their marriage destiny.

6. The 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. This is the middle of the fall season of the year, which is why it is called the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Chinese lunar calendar, the year is divided into four seasons, each of which is further divided into three parts: the Meng, the Midsummer, and the Quarter, hence the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon on the 15th day of the 8th month is fuller and brighter than the full moons of other months, which is why it is also called "Moon Festival" and "August Festival". On this night, people look up at the bright moon in the sky like a jade disk and naturally look forward to family reunions. People who are far away from their hometowns also take this opportunity to express their nostalgia for their hometowns and loved ones. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the "reunion festival".

Art China /

China's people in ancient times, there is the custom of "autumn sunset moon". In ancient times, the people of China had the custom of "autumn sunset moon", which means worshiping the moon god. In the Zhou Dynasty, every mid-autumn night, the moon festival was held to welcome the cold and sacrifice the moon. A large incense burner was set up, and mooncakes, watermelons, apples, jujubes, plums, grapes and other offerings were placed on the table, of which mooncakes and watermelons were absolutely indispensable. The watermelon should also be cut in the shape of a lotus flower. Under the moon, the statue of the moon god is placed in the direction of the moon, red candles are lit high, the whole family worships the moon in turn, and then the housewife in charge cuts the mooncakes for reunion. Cutting people counted in advance how many people in the family ***, at home, in the field, should be counted together, can not cut more or less, the size should be the same.

According to legend, the ancient Qi ugly girl without salt, young, had devoutly worship the moon, grew up, to the superb character into the palace, but was not favored. One year, on the 15th day of the 8th month to enjoy the moon, the son of heaven saw her under the moonlight, thought she was beautiful and outstanding, and later set her up as the queen, the mid-autumn festival to worship the moon thus came to be. Chang'e in the moon, known for her beauty, so young girls worship the moon, wishing to "look like Chang'e, face as white as the moon".

Art China /

In the Tang Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, playing with the moon was quite popular. In the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. On the night of August 15, people all over the city, rich or poor, old or young, would put on adult clothes, burn incense and worship the moon to say their wishes and pray for the blessing of the moon god. In the Southern Song Dynasty, people gave moon cakes to each other, taking the meaning of reunion. In some places, there are also dancing grass dragons, building pagodas and other activities. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival have become more prevalent; many places have formed special customs such as burning douxiang, tree mid-autumn, lighting pagoda lamps, releasing sky lanterns, walking on the moon, and dancing with fire dragons.

Art China /

Today, the custom of playing under the moon is far less popular than in the old days. However, it is still very popular to hold banquets to enjoy the moon, and people drink wine and ask about the moon to celebrate a better life, or to wish their distant relatives health and happiness, and family members "thousands of miles of **** Canyuanjuan".

The Mid-Autumn Festival has a lot of customs and different forms, but all of them are sent to people's infinite love of life and the desire for a better life....

7. The ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar is the traditional Chongyang Festival. Because the ancient "I Ching" in the "six" as the number of yin, the "nine" as the number of yang, the ninth day of September, the sun and the moon and the sun, the two nine overlap, so called Chongyang, also known as heavy nine, the ancients believe that it is a worthy of celebrating the auspicious day, and from a long time ago began to celebrate the festival!

6

The festival is a celebration of the sun and the moon.

6 /

Celebrating the Chung Yeung Festival is a colorful and romantic activity, generally including trips to enjoy the scenery, climbing high and far away, chrysanthemums, all the dogwood, eat Chung Yeung cake, drink chrysanthemum wine and other activities.

JiuJiu ChongYang, because with the "long time" homophonic, nine in the number is the largest number, there is a long long life meaning, and the fall is also a year of harvest of the golden season, ChongYang Festival, far-reaching significance, people have always had a special feeling for this festival, Tang poetry and Song Dynasty has a lot of congratulations on the ChongYang, chrysanthemums of the poems of the masterpieces.

* /

Today's Chrysanthemum Festival, was given a new meaning, in 1989, China's September 9 every year as the Elderly Day, the traditional and modern ingenious combination of respect for the elderly, respect for the elderly, love for the elderly, to help the elderly festival. National institutions, groups, streets, often at this time to organize the old people retired from their workplaces to enjoy the scenery in the autumn, or the water to play, or mountaineering fitness, so that the body and mind are bathed in the embrace of nature; many families of the younger generation will also assist the elderly elders to the countryside activities or for the elderly to prepare some tasty food and drink. ... ...

8. Winter Solstice, is a very important festival in China's lunar calendar, but also a traditional festival, there are still many places have had the custom of winter solstice festival. The winter solstice is commonly known as the "winter festival", "long solstice festival", "YaYu", etc. As early as two and a half thousand years ago, the winter solstice is the most important festival in the Chinese lunar calendar. As early as two thousand five hundred years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period, our country has used the earth to observe the sun to determine the winter solstice, it is the twenty-four solar terms in the earliest development of a. The time in December of each year, the solar calendar. The time is between December 22nd or 23rd on the solar calendar every year.

The winter solstice is the day with the shortest day and the longest night in the northern hemisphere throughout the year, and after the winter solstice, the day will get longer day by day. Ancient people on the winter solstice is: the Yin pole of the arrival, Yang Qi began to grow, the day south to the shortest day to the longest shadow of the sun, so it is said "winter solstice". After the winter solstice, the climate around the world have entered one of the coldest stage, which is often referred to as "into the nine", China's folk "cold in the three nine, hot in three volts," said.

Art China /

Modern astronomical science determined that the winter solstice sun directly above the Tropic of Capricorn, sunlight on the northern hemisphere is the most tilted, the northern hemisphere day is the shortest, the night is the longest, the day after the sun is gradually moving north.

In our country in ancient times on the winter solstice is very important, the winter solstice is treated as a large festival, there was a "winter solstice is as big as the year," said, and there are customs to celebrate the winter solstice. The book of han said: "winter solstice yang qi up, juntao long, so congratulations." People think: after the winter solstice, the day is longer than one day, Yang Qi rise, is the beginning of a cycle of festivals, is also an auspicious day, should be celebrated. The Book of Jin" on the record "Wei Jin winter solstice day by all the countries and bureaucrats to congratulate ...... its instrument subdivided into the first day." This shows the importance of the winter solstice in ancient times.

Now, some places still take the winter solstice as a festival. Northern regions have the custom of slaughtering sheep, eating dumplings and wontons on the winter solstice, while southern regions have the habit of eating winter solstice rice balls and winter solstice long thread noodles on this day. Each region also has the custom of offering sacrifices to the sky and ancestors on the winter solstice... ...

9. The most important festival in the month of Lunar New Year is the eighth day of the twelfth month, which was called "Lunar New Year's Day" in ancient times, commonly known as "Lunar New Year's Day".

f /

From the pre-Qin Dynasty onwards, the Laha Festival was used to worship ancestors and gods, and to pray for a good harvest and good fortune. It is said that Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, became a Buddhist on the eighth day of the twelfth month, which is why Laha is also a Buddhist festival, called the "Festival of the Buddhas".

The day of Lapa congee custom, Lapa congee is also called "seven treasures and five flavors of congee". China's history of drinking Laha congee, has been more than a thousand years. The earliest began in the Song Dynasty. On every Laha day, whether it is the court, the government, the temple or the people's home to do Laha congee. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laha congee was even more prevalent. In the court, the emperor, the empress, the emperor's son and so on to the civil and military ministers, court ladies give Laha congee, and to the various monasteries to distribute rice, fruit and so on for the monks to eat. In the folk world, families also make Laha congee to honor their ancestors; at the same time, families gather together to eat it and gift it to friends and relatives.

Art China /

The patterns of Laha congee in different parts of China are very varied. Among them, the most elaborate in Beiping, mixed in the white rice more items, such as dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, cinnamon, hazelnuts, grapes, white fruits, lignum vitae, green silk, roses, red beans, peanuts, ...... no less than a total of twenty kinds. People in the evening of the seventh day of the first month of the lunar calendar, began to get busy, washing rice, soaking fruit, plucking the skin, removing the nucleus, fine picking and then in the middle of the night to start cooking, and then stewed with a slight fire, has been stewed to the early morning of the next day, Laha congee is considered to be simmering well.

Art China /

The more elaborate people will also carve the fruit into human figures, animals and patterns before placing them in the pot to cook. One of the more distinctive features is the "fruit lion" placed in the congee. Fruit lion is made of several kinds of fruit in the shape of a lion, with picking out the pits of jujube roasted dry crisp jujube as the lion body, half of the walnut kernel as the lion's head, peach kernel as the lion's feet, and sweet almonds used for the lion's tail. The sweet almonds are used for the lion's tail. Then they are stuck together with sugar and placed in a bowl of congee, resembling a small lion. If the bowl is bigger, you can put double lions or four small lions. The more elaborate ones are made of date paste, bean paste, yam, hawthorn cake, and other foods with various colors, and are pinched into the figures of the Eight Immortals, the Longevity Star, and the Lohan. This kind of decorated Laba congee can only be seen on the offering tables of big temples in the old days.

After the Laha congee is boiled, it should be offered to the gods and ancestors first. After that, it is to be presented to friends and relatives, and must be sent out before noon. Finally, it is eaten by the whole family. Leftover Laha congee, save a few days to eat there are left over, but a good omen, to take its "year after year" meaning. If you give the porridge to the poor people to eat, it is more for their own virtue.

Laiba congee in folklore and witchcraft. If there are flowers and fruit trees planted in the yard, some Laha congee should also be smeared on the branches and trunks, believing that there will be more fruit in the coming year.

On the day of Laha, in addition to sacrificing ancestors to honor the gods, there are also mourning the dead country, send condolences... ...

These are the main traditional festivals in China, just for reference!