Festivals are an important part of Chinese culture and tradition. Chinese festivals, both traditional and modern, are generally happy and colorful affairs that reaffirm both ancient and new customs and beliefs. Chinese festivals occur throughout both the Chinese Lunar year and the Gregorian calendar year. Each Chinese festival, both old and new, is unique and rich in culture and tradition. Festival activities can include fireworks, lion dancing, loud drums and cymbals music (to ward off evil spirits), and many other forms of festive celebrations.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-yearcycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors.

The sacrifice to the ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals, united the living members with those who had passed away. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.

The presence of the ancestors is acknowledged on New Year's Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great community. The communal feast called "surrounding the stove" or weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations.

Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Festival, also known as the Shang Yuan Festival is a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar year in the Chinese calendar. It is not to be confused with the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is also sometimes known as the "Lantern Festival" in locations such as Singapore, and Malaysia. During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night to temples carrying rabbit-shaped lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns.

In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, for only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones; in modern times, lanterns have been embellished with many complex designs. For example, lanterns are now often made in shapes of animals.

The Lantern Festival is also known as the Little New Year since it marks the end of the series of celebrations starting from the Chinese New Year. Koreans celebrate this festival as the Daeboreum.

Qing Ming Day Festival
    

As one of the important festivals valued by Shaoxing natives, it is popular to do things as follows on Tomb Sweeping Day: go for a walk in the country, sweep tombs, worship ancestors, inset willow and eat wormwood dumplings. It is said Yue People (native Shaoxing) going for a walk in the country and sweeping tombs can be dated back to Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the ruler prohibited Yimin (the citizens from South Song Dynasty including Yue People) to go for a walk on Qingming day, so Yue people went for walk in the name of tomb sweeping. After the tomb sweeping, they went for a walk nearby, picked up Yinshanhong (azalea), flied kites, and had a rest in the neighbors of their tombs.

On tomb sweeping day, it is popular for native Shaoxing to worship ancestors in memorial temples. In the past, it is the tradition that both urban and rural residents in one tribe will always live together, and one memorial temple for one tribe within which memorial tablets of the departed clansmen were offered. When the tomb sweeping day arrived, the memorial temple was opened, and clansmen poured in for the sacrifices. It is also the convention for native Shaoxing to eat wormwood dumpling and Songhua (the flower powder of the pine trees) dumpling, whose main reason is that during the period of the Tomb Sweeping Day, it is the time to pick up felon herb and Songhua. The wormwood dumpling made of felon herb and rice powder is green and tender. As for the Songhua, which is nutritious, is a good ingredient to make Songhua cake which is yellow and fresh.

After the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China, Shaoxing residents follow the customs to sweep tombs, and it is commonly accepted to sacrifice the martyrs on that day. During the sacrifice of the martyrs, people will present the wreath, stand in silent, pay tribute, recall and learn from the martyrs, which is a good way for the education of patriotism and revolution tradition.

Dragon Boat Festival

The Duanwu Festival is a Chinese traditional and statutory holiday also called Dragon Boat Festival It is a public holiday in mainland China and Taiwan, where it is called the "Duanwu Jie" and a public holiday in Hong Kong and Macau, where it is called the "Tuen Ng Jit". In English it is also referred to as "Dragon Boat Festival", after one of the traditional activities for the holiday.

The Duanwu Festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, giving rise to the alternative name of Double Fifth. In 2008, this falls on 8 June. The focus of the celebrations includes eating zongzi, which are large rice wraps, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

Qi Xi Festival
         

On the Chinese Valentine's Day, people in love like to go to the temple of Matchmaker and pray for their love and the possible marriages. People who are still single will do the same thing to ask their luck of love in the Matchmaker temple.

The Chinese Valentine's Day is also called Qi Xi Jie.  Long ago, Chinese girls always wanted to train themselves having a good handcrafting skill like the Weaving Maid. The skill is essential for their future family. On that night, the unmarried girls may pray for the Weaving Maid star to let them become smarter. When the star Vega is high up in the sky, girls do a test, which is to put a needle on the water surface. If the needle doesn't sink, then girl is already smart enough and ready to find a husband. Girls may ask for any wish, but only one per year.

In some Chinese provinces, people believe that decorating the flowers on the ox's horn on the Chinese Valentine's Day can prevent misfortune. On the night of Valentine's Day, women wash their hair to give it a fresh and shiny outlook. Children wash their face in the next morning of the Valentine's Day using the overnight water in their backyards to have a much more naturally beautiful appearance. Girls throw the five-color ropes, made at Chinese Dragon Boat festival, on the roof for magpies. Magpies will carry ropes to build the bridge.

Chinese Moon Festival
The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. It's also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.

The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. With the full moon, the legend, the family and the poems, you can't help thinking that this is really a perfect world. That is why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival.

The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without a silk of cloud and with a little mild breeze from the sea. Lovers spend such a romantic night together tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine while watching the full moon. Even for a couple who can't be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time so it seems that they are together at that hour. A great number of poetry has been devoted to this romantic festival. Hope the Moon Festival will bring you happiness.

The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. The Chinese eat the moon cake at night with the full moon in the sky. Here are a few pictures of the typical moon cake.

Chongyang - Double Nineth Festival
Double Nineth Festival is celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, and it is as such known as the Double Ninth Festival.

The festival began as early as the Warring States Period (475 - 221 BC). According to the yin/yang dichotomy that forms a basis to the Chinese world view, yin represents the elements of darkness and yang represents life and brightness. The number nine is regarded as yang. The ninth day of the ninth month is a double yang day, hence the name "Chong Yang Festival". (Chong means "repeat" in Chinese.) The ninth month also heralds the approach of winter. It is a time when the living need warm clothing, and filial Chinese sons and daughters extended this to make the festival a time for providing winter clothes for their ancestors. The Double Ninth Festival, therefore, also became an occasion to visit the graves of dead family members. Clothes made of paper would then be burnt as offerings.

On the Double Ninth Festival, people customarily climb mountains, appreciate chrysanthemum flowers, drink chrysanthemum wine, and eat double-ninth cakes. The Double Ninth Festival is also the "Old Men Festival". Old people are especially meant to improve their health by taking part in the activities on the day of the festival.

The Double Ninth Festival is also a time for family get-togethers. It is an occasion to remember one's ancestors, the sacrifices they made and the hardships they underwent. Often, family outings are organised during which people search to renew their appreciation of nature and to reaffirm their love and concern for family members and close friends.

Winter Solstice Festival

As early as 2,500 years ago, about the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), China had determined the point of Winter Solstice by observing movements of the sun with a sundial. It is the earliest of the 24 seasonal division points. The time will be each December 21 or 22 according to the Gregorian calendar.

 The Northern hemisphere on this day experiences the shortest daytime and longest nighttime. After the Winter Solstice, days will become longer and longer. As ancient Chinese thought, the yang, or muscular, positive things will become stronger and stronger after this day, so it should be celebrated.

The Winter Solstice became a festival during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and thrived in the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279). The Han people regarded Winter Solstice as a "Winter Festival", so officials would organize celebrating activities. On this day, both officials and common people would have a rest. The army was stationed in, frontier fortresses closed and business and traveling stopped. Relatives and friends presented to each other delicious food. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the Winter Solstice was a day to offer scarifies to Heaven and ancestors. Emperors would go to suburbs to worship the Heaven; while common people offered sacrifices to their deceased parents or other relatives. The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) even had the record that "Winter Solstice is as formal as the Spring Festival," showing the great importance attached to this day.

Ethnic Minority Festivals
       

China is a large country with 55 ethnic minorities. Because of the differences in living environments, history and customs, characteristic festivals are held by the ethnic minorities besides the Spring Festival, and Mid-autumn Festival that the Han Chinese celebrate. All these traditional ethnic minority festivals are regarded as indispensable components of the minorities' customs.

It is estimated that more than 1,200 of the 1,700 Chinese festivals are ethnic minorities' festivals. Each festival there is based on its own origin or legend, and a single festival can also have different origins. Some of these festivals are related to religions and beliefs, such as the Corban Festival and Kaizhai Festival, whereas others are linked to entertainment activities, such as the Nadam Fair of Mongolia and the Tibetan New Year.

Some of the ethnic minority festivals are so grand and influential that they attract spectators from far away.