The 8 major traditional Chinese festivals are?

The main traditional Chinese festivals are: Spring Festival (the first day of the first month), Lantern Festival (the fifteenth day of the first month), Dragon Head Raising (the second day of the second month), Shangsi Festival (the third day of the third month of the third lunar month), Chingming Festival (around the fifth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar), Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth lunar calendar), Tanabata Festival (the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar), the half day of the seventh moon (the fourteenth/fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar), Mid-Autumn Festival (the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar), Chongyang Festival (the ninth day of the September 9), Winter Solstice Festival (December 21~23 on the solar calendar), New Year's Eve (the last day of the year), and so on.

Also, among the twenty-four solar terms, there are some that are both solar terms and festivals. For example, Qingming, Winter Solstice, etc. These festivals have both natural and humanistic connotations, and are both natural festivals and traditional festivals. In addition, China's ethnic minorities have also retained their own traditional festivals, such as the Dai's Water Festival, the Mongolian Naadam Conference, the Yi's Torch Festival, the Yao's Danu Festival, the Bai's March Street, the Zhuang's Song Wei, the Tibetan's Tibetan New Year and Wangguo Festival, and the Miao's Flower Jumping Festival, and so on.

Expanded Information:

I. The Formation of Traditional Festivals

The origins of traditional festivals and the development of their inheritance are the result of a process by which the human society "Gradually formed, gradually perfected the cultural process", is the product of the evolution of human civilization. According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, the two most primitive beliefs of human beings are the belief in heaven and earth and the belief in ancestors.

The belief in heaven and earth and the belief in ancestors arose in the early days of mankind's worship of the natural world and of their ancestors, which gave rise to a variety of worship and sacrificial activities. The formation of ancient traditional festivals is related to the ancient primitive beliefs, sacrificial culture, and the astronomical calendar, and most of the festivals were formed on auspicious days when the ancients chose to offer sacrifices to thank the gods of heaven and earth and the ancestors for their kindness.

Sacrifice is a faith activity that originates from the belief that heaven and earth are in harmony*** with each other. The ancient calendar provides the preconditions for the creation of festivals, and primitive beliefs and sacrificial culture are important factors in the formation of most traditional festivals. Traditional festival culture reflects the long history and profound Chinese cultural connotation.

The traditional festivals of the Chinese nation carry humanistic and natural cultural contents such as beliefs, sacrifices, astronomy, geography, physical phenomena, arts and crafts, and calendars. The early festival culture reflects the humanistic spirit of nature worship and the unity of heaven and man in the ancient society of the ancients; a series of sacrificial activities contain the profound cultural connotation of the civilization of rites and music.

Each traditional Chinese festival has its own origin and the necessary conditions for its formation. Due to the lack of ancient documents, the earliest surviving records of traditional festivals can only be found in the Xia Xiaozheng and Shangshu writings. In the course of history, some festivals have been altered in date due to changes in dynasties and calendars.

The traditional festivals of the Chinese nation are varied and rich in content, and are an important component of the long history and culture of the Chinese nation, constituting the basic framework of a civilized nation.

The development of traditional festivals

The traditional Chinese festivals, as an important part of the long history and culture of the Chinese nation, reflect the rich social and cultural life of the ancient people, and also accumulate the profound and profound connotations of Chinese history and culture. Most of the festivals and customs have already appeared in the ancient times, but the richness and popularity of the customs have gone through a long process of development.

Folk festivals come from primitive beliefs and the needs of daily life, and the earliest customary activities were related to primitive worship and sacrificial culture. Each traditional festival has its own carriers of activities, such as temple fairs, lantern festivals, lion dances, New Year's festivals, dragon boat raking, worship of gods and ancestors, and so on.

Most of the traditional festivals were formed in the ancient times, and during the pre-Qin period, due to the different customs of the north and the south, the customs of the north and the south had not yet been integrated and popularized, and many of the ancient festivals and customs were seldom recorded in the literature of the Central Plains. The Han Dynasty was the first period of great development after the unification of China, the economic and cultural exchanges between the north and the south of the customs and habits of the integration of each other, which provides a good social conditions for the spread of the popularity of holiday customs.

After the Han Dynasty, cultural exchanges between the north and the south led to the fusion and spread of festivals and customs, and the main traditional festivals have been popularized throughout the country, and it is often said that these festivals and customs were popularized in the Han Dynasty. Festivals developed into the Tang Dynasty, has changed from the original worship serious atmosphere to entertainment ceremonial type. From then on, the festival became colorful, many sports, enjoyable activities content appeared, and soon became a fashion popular.

These customs have continued to develop and endure. The Tang Dynasty was an important period in which traditional festival customs were kneaded and finalized, and the main part of them has been handed down to the present day.

Third, the inheritance of traditional festivals

In the ancient times, people set up a festival point, these days are called festivals, festivals are based on the primitive beliefs of the people as well as in order to adapt to the needs of life and the creation of folk culture. In the long history, successive generations of literati, poets and ink masters, for a festival composed many ancient masterpieces, these poems and texts are popular and widely celebrated, so that the traditional Chinese festival permeated with a deep cultural heritage, wonderful romantic.

In the evolution of historical development, there are also some traditional festivals are attached to the "plague", "to avoid evil" and other heavy color stories and legends as the festival "origin", by the Upon actual investigation, these stories and legends were created much later than the birth of the festival, and were constructed by later generations. Attached to these "to avoid the plague and evil" stories and festival connotation of conflict, invariably on the festival cultural connotation of a certain degree of impact, does not help the traditional festival heritage and carry forward.

Chinese festivals have a strong cohesion and broad inclusiveness, and when it comes to festivals, the whole country celebrates together, which is a valuable spiritual cultural heritage that is inherited from the long history of our nation. These festivals have carried a rich culture and connotation in their historical development. All of these are integrated into the content of the festivals, giving Chinese festivals a deep sense of history.

Festival culture is a concentrated display of the essence of the living culture of the Chinese nation, and traditional festivals represent a great variety of customs in China, condensing the ideological essence of Chinese civilization. From the Chinese seven traditional festivals logo press conference, the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chongyang and other Chinese seven traditional festivals logo officially released.

This is one of the actions initiated by the Festivals China Collaboration of the Chinese Culture Promotion Association to package the seven traditional festivals together for inscription. Chinese traditional festivals, which have been going on for thousands of years, have accumulated profound cultural connotations, but due to the lack of an image logo system, it is not conducive to the promotion and dissemination of traditional festival culture in modern society. The image logo of the seven Chinese traditional festivals will be conducive to the Chinese traditional festival culture to the world.

At the same time, the "traditional festival image logo management approach" is also the same day to draw up, according to the "traditional festival image logo management approach" requirements, the Chinese Culture Promotion Association has the collection of evaluation of the traditional festival image logo copyright, any unit or individual in the use of traditional festival image logo, should ensure that the legal use.

Reference:

Baidu Encyclopedia - Traditional Chinese Festivals