As an historical and civilized country with a long history, the abundant number of traditional festivals is an integral part of the cultural landscape. Each festival has its own historical origin, legend and enjoyment. They reflect a nation's traditional habits and religious morality. The main traditional festivals are the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Double Seventh Festival (Chinese Valentine’s Day), Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, etc – all of which are spectacular celebrations.
Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is the most celebrated traditional Chinese festival and known as “Guo Nian” in Chinese. With the coming of Chinese New Year, every family will gather to have dinner, known as “Tuan Nian” which means “getting together”. People will stay up late even all night on Chinese New Year's Eve, putting up the spring festival scrolls and decorating with lanterns and streamers. Meanwhile, local people will pay visits to each other at the beginning days of Chinese New Year, play the lion dance and the dragon lantern dance, put on Shehuo show, visit flower markets and appreciate lantern lights.
Lantern Festival
The 15th day of the 1st lunar month is the Chinese Lantern Festival. The 15th day is the first night to see a full moon. Therefore, the day is also called Yuan (Round) Xiao (Night) Festival in China. According to the Chinese tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve the puzzles on the lanterns and eat Yuanxiao (glutinous rice ball) and get all their families united in the joyful atmosphere.
Qingming Festival
The Qingming Festival meaning Clear and Bright Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice (or the 15th day from the Spring Equinox), usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar. Every leap year, Qing Ming is on April 4. Astronomically, it is also a solar term. In solar terms, the Qingming festival is on the 1st day of the 5th solar term, which is also named Qingming. Its name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime, and also to tend to the graves of departed ones.
Qingming is a statutory public holiday in mainland China in 2008 for the first time since 1949.
Dragon Boat Festival
Falling on the May 5th of the lunar calendar, another traditional festival is held – the Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Double Fifth Festival. People celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival so as to mourn for the great poet, writer and noble officer, QU Yuan who is said to have committed suicide by drowning himself in a river. In order to prevent the fish and shrimp from biting QU Yuan, people put the ZongZi (dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves) they prepared into the river to feed them. The tradition of eating and making ZongZi was passed down generation by generation. It is a festival celebrated for more than 2,000 years. It is also referred to as Health Day, and an opportunity for people to sweep their yards, hang calamus and artemisia, drink rice wine and sprinkle it around the courtyard as a disinfectant.
Double Seventh Festival
Double Seventh Festival,known Qi Xi in Chinese (literally "The Night of Sevens") and also known as Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar. It is sometimes called Chinese Valentine's Day in recent years.
Young girls traditionally demonstrate their domestic arts, especially melon carving, on this day and make wishes for a good husband. It is also known by the following names:
• The Festival to Plead for Skills
• The Seventh Sister's Birthday
• The Night of Skills
Mid-Autumn Festival
The 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar is China's Mid-Autumn Festival. It is so named because it falls in the middle of autumn. The moon is roundest and brightest at this time people across all of China will sit down and eat with their closest family and friends, miss their hometowns, and get deluged by memories. Because of the tendency to sit around a round table with family and friends, Mid Autumn Festival is also called “Gathering Holiday”. And there is no denying that Mid Autumn Festival is one of the most important traditional Chinese holidays. In some local places in China, people still play the straw dragon dance and other such activities at the festival.
Double Ninth Festival
Double Ninth Festival falls on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. In the ancient Book of Changes, people take the number six as Yin and the number nine as Yang. On that day, it's the 9 th day of the 9 th month of a year, so it is known as Double Yang or Double Ninth. “Nine” and ”long live” have the same pronunciation in Chinese and the number “nine” is the largest in the single digit numbers, so nine holds a significance for Chinese. In 1989 the Chinese Government proclaimed the day Senior Citizen's Day, so now the day is also an opportunity to care for and appreciate the elderly. To celebrate the day, there are many activities which include visiting family and friends, climbing mountains, wearing zhuyu (a kind of plant and considered to have cleansing qualities ), eating Double Ninth cake, drinking chrysanthemum wine and so on.
New Year’s Day
New Year’s Day marks the first day of the new year on the Gregorian calendar. Although not was well celebrated as it is in the west, mainly due to being overshadowed by Chinese New Year, New Year's Day in the Gregoriancalendar is still seen as an important time in China. It is marked with a paid day-off for workers, and people can be seen having parties and dancing in halls and parks.