12 Traditional Chinese Festivals

The twelve traditional festivals are the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Society Day Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata Festival, Mid-Yuan Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chongyang Festival, Winter Solstice Festival, and New Year's Eve.

1, the Spring Festival

The Spring Festival, that is, the Lunar New Year, is the first year of the year, but also for the traditional meaning of "New Year's Day". Commonly known as the new spring, new year, new year, new jubilee, jubilee, big year, etc., and verbally known as the degree of the year, celebrating the year, the New Year, the New Year. The Spring Festival has a long history, evolved from the ancient times of the first year of prayer and sacrifice.

2, Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival, also known as the Festival of the first yuan, the small first month, Yuanxi or Lantern Festival, for the first month of the first year of the lunar calendar on the fifteenth day of the first month of the year, is one of China's traditional festivals. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, the ancients called "night" for "night", the 15th day of the first month is the first full-moon night of the year, so the 15th day of the first month is called "Lantern Festival".

3, Dragon Head Raising

"Dragon Head Raising" originated from the worship of natural phenomena, and the ancient times people's understanding of the operation of the stars and farming culture. "Although it has a long history, it became a national festival and appeared in the literature after the Yuan Dynasty.

There are many activities associated with the "Dragon's Head" festival, but no matter which way they are carried out, they all revolve around the belief in the beautiful dragon god, and they are activities in which people place their hopes for survival. The custom varies from place to place across the country, depending on the region.

4, Shezhi Festival

Shezhi Festival, also known as the Land Festival, is an ancient Chinese traditional festival, Shezhi is divided into the Spring and Autumn Society. In ancient times, the festival was based on the dry calendar to determine the period, and later because of the calendar changes to use the lunar calendar to determine the period. Spring Society according to the spring after the fifth e day projections, generally in the second month of the lunar calendar around the second, the autumn Society according to the fifth e day after the fall, about the new valley debut of the lunar calendar in August.

Anciently, the land god and the place where the land god is worshipped are called "society", according to our folk customs. Whenever it was time to plant seeds or harvest, farmers would set up a shrine to pray to or reward the land god.

5, Qingming Festival

Qingming is an ancient festival of the Chinese nation, both a solemn festival of sweeping tombs and ancestor worship, but also people close to nature, trekking and enjoying the fun of spring festival. Qingming Festival is generally around April 5th in the Gregorian calendar, that is, the 15th day after the vernal equinox. At this time of year, the vitality of life, the decline of yin, all things "spit out the old and new", the earth presents the image of spring and bright landscape, it is the countryside trekking spring tour and the line of the good time of the Qing Tomb Sacrifice.

6, Dragon Boat Festival

Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Chongwu Festival, Dragon Festival, Festival of the first day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, is a traditional Chinese folk festival. The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival covers ancient astrological culture, humanities and philosophy, and contains profound and rich cultural connotations; in the development of the inheritance of a variety of folklore as a whole, the festival is rich in customary content.

7, Tanabata Festival

The Tanabata Festival is not only a festival to worship the seven sisters, but also a festival of love, a comprehensive festival with the "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" folklore as the carrier, and with the themes of praying for blessings, begging for coincidental luck, and love, and with the main body of the festival as a woman.

The "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden" of Tanabata comes from people's worship of natural celestial phenomena. In ancient times, people corresponded the astronomical star area with the geographic area, and this correspondence was called "star division" in terms of astronomy and "field division" in terms of geography. This correspondence is known as "the division of stars" for astronomy and "the division of fields" for geography. According to legend, every year on the seventh day of the seventh month, the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden will meet at the Magpie Bridge in the sky.

8, Zhongyuan Festival

"Half of July" was originally a folk festival of ancestor worship in the ancient times, and was called "Zhongyuan Festival", which originated from the Eastern Han Dynasty after the Taoist saying. Taoism believes that the half of the seventh month is the birth anniversary of the earth official, praying for the earth official to forgive sins on the day, the netherworld will release all the ghosts, the deceased ancestors can go home to reunion, so the half of the seventh month in the autumn tasted ancestor festival called "in the Yuan Festival".

9, Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival began in the early Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, has become one of the Chinese traditional festivals with the Spring Festival. Influenced by Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival in some East and Southeast Asian countries, especially for local Chinese.

10, Chongyang Festival

The Chongyang Festival originated from the worship of heavenly phenomena, began in ancient times, popularized in the Western Han Dynasty, flourished after the Tang Dynasty. According to the existing historical materials and evidence, in the ancient times, there are in the autumn of the season held in the harvest sacrifice to heaven, ancestor worship activities.

Ancient people in September when the crop harvest sacrifices to the emperor of heaven, ancestor worship, in order to thank the emperor of heaven, ancestor beneficence of the activities, which is the Chung Yeung Festival as an autumn harvest ritual activities and the existence of the original form. 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.

11, winter solstice

Winter solstice, also known as the day south solstice, winter festival, subyear, etc., both natural and humanistic connotations of the two, both the twenty-four seasons of an important festival, but also the traditional Chinese folk festival of ancestor worship. The winter solstice is one of the four seasons, is regarded as a big winter festival, in the ancient folk "winter solstice is as big as the year," said.

12, New Year's Eve

The last day of the year is called "New Year's Eve", and that night is called "New Year's Eve". It is connected with the end of the New Year, so that "the year is poor and the month is over, and the year is nearly over", is the eve of the new year, is an important time to get rid of the old and welcome the new point of junction. New Year's Eve is often in the lunar calendar December 29 or 30, it is also known as the day for the New Year's Eve.

New Year's Day, the folk are particularly important, families busy or cleaning house, in addition to the old cloth new, lights and colorful, welcome the ancestors home for the New Year, and to the New Year's cake, three animals and rice and three tea and five wine offerings.