Four Traditional Festivals In China

Chinese traditional festivals are celebration festivals with profound emotional connotations formed in the long-term accumulation of Chinese history and culture. The rich folk customs and celebrations of traditional festivals embody the psychology, emotion and hope for the stability of the country or nation. It is a cultural phenomenon, a cultural symbol and the identification and conversion of national cultural emotions. China’s four traditional festivals contain the essence of Chinese traditional culture. The traditional festivals on national statutory holidays include the Chinese New Year, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. These four festivals are each full of profound cultural connotations.
China is one of the countries with the most festivals in the world. According to statistics, there are more than 160 festivals in various ethnic regions in China, and there are dozens of traditional festivals. As an important part of Chinese traditional culture, traditional festivals play an important role in condensing people’s emotions and continuing traditional culture. 

1. Chinese New Year

The Spring Festival, also known as “Nian” and “New Year”, is the most solemn and lively festival among traditional Chinese festivals. The Spring Festival has a long history and evolved from the prayers for the first year of the year in ancient times. The origin of the Spring Festival contains profound cultural connotations, and it carries a rich historical and cultural heritage in its inheritance and development. In the historical development, although the calendars used are different and the dates of the New Year’s Day festivals are different, the festival framework and many folk customs have been inherited. As the days of celebration are getting longer and longer, it has gradually evolved into the largest festival in China.
Returning home for the Chinese New Year has become a top priority for Chinese people. During the Spring Festival, the tidal wave of people returning home constitutes the most spectacular migration scene in human history. Going home to reunite with family members, having New Year’s Eve dinner together, keeping the New Year’s Eve together, and setting off firecrackers, more and more condensed into a deep and lingering complex in the hearts of Chinese people.

2. Qingming Festival

The Qingming Festival originated from the ancestral beliefs and spring rituals in ancient times, and has both natural and humanistic connotations. It is not only a natural solar term in the lunar calendar, but also a traditional festival. The main folk activities during the Qingming Festival are tomb-sweeping ancestors and outings.
In the historical development, Qingming Festival incorporates the custom of banning fire and cold food popular in the northern region.
On May 20, 2006, the State Council approved the Qingming Festival to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
Since 2008, China has recognized the Qingming Festival as a legal holiday, with one day off.
In 2009, it was changed to three days and continued.

3. Dragon Boat Festival

The Duanyang Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar every year. It has an inseparable connection with the traditional Chinese calendar method.
According to prehistoric cultures such as the Hemudu site, there were canoes and wooden oars for racing as early as seven thousand years or earlier. The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival covers ancient astrological culture, humanistic philosophy and other aspects, contains profound and rich cultural connotations, and also mixes a variety of folk customs in the inheritance and development. These festivals and customs have themes such as praying for blessings and eliminating disasters, which express people’s wishes to welcome blessings, ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters.
Many customs of the Dragon Boat Festival are also ingeniously linked to Qu Yuan, such as eating zongzi, rowing dragon boats and so on. Since then, the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival has continued. In the article “Dragon Boat Examination”, Mr. Wen Yiduo put forward his own views on the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, combining with folklore research, and believed that the Dragon Boat Festival was the product of Chinese dragon totem worship. The importance attached by ancient and modern scholars to the Dragon Boat Festival shows that the Dragon Boat Festival has profound cultural connotations.
In 2008, in Article 2 of the “Decision of the State Council on Amending the “Measures for Holidays for National Festivals and Commemorative Days” (effective from January 1, 2008), the Dragon Boat Festival was officially designated as a national statutory holiday.
On September 30, 2009, at the meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, it was decided that the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival was successfully included in the “Representative List of the World’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”.

4. Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, the Autumn Festival, the Moon Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Moon Worship Festival, the Reunion Festival, etc., is a traditional Chinese folk festival. Enjoying the moon, eating moon cakes, playing with lanterns, appreciating sweet-scented osmanthus, drinking sweet-scented osmanthus wine and other folk customs. The Mid-Autumn Festival originated in ancient times, popularized in the Han Dynasty, finalized in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, and prevailed nationwide after the Song Dynasty.
Chinese traditional festivals carry the civilization of the Chinese nation, and the broad and profound Chinese civilization has created a colorful festival culture. In the long history of the development of Chinese civilization, traditional festivals have always been closely related to the production and life of the people. Looking at its development track, it is not difficult to see that since the formation of the Han and Wei Dynasties, Chinese annual festivals have basically developed in the direction of being separated from the time of the month. The nature of natural time in the festivals became indifferent as the years passed, and the time rituals of seasonal sacrifices gradually became secularized into family or social gatherings and celebrations. Especially in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, festivals became a concentrated time for them to express their emotions, express their feelings, and play recklessly.
The State Council legalizes the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and other traditional festivals as holidays, which is full respect for traditional national psychology and a return to and advocacy of traditional culture.