Chinese Festivals

China is well-known for its annual and extravagant Chinese New Year celebrations, consisting of firecrackers, fireworks and more. It’s a celebration not to be missed in China! But what about the other traditional Chinese festivals? In today's blog post I want to dive deeper into Chinese culture, focusing on The Lantern Festival and celebrations that take place during this time, as well as the traditional Chinese New Years Celebrations! So come along with me and learn all about this fantastic, fascinating culture and their celebrations.

Chinese New Year is the obvious choice to start with when learning about traditional festivals and celebrations. An annual celebration that’s known across the world, it’s probably the biggest celebrated event of the year in China. Also known as the Luna New Year or Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year is China’s most important festival as it marks the start of a New Year. How other countries typically count January 1stas New Year, this is not the case in China; the New Year in China is determined by the Lunar calendar and falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (which is on the 21stof December). This means that the date changes annually but always falls between January 21stand February 20th.

The Chinese New Year festival has over 3000 years of history behind it, yet many of the traditions have changed throughout history. The main traditions now include: putting up decorations, firecrackers and fireworks, giving red envelopes (red is seen as a lucky colour during this time), giving gifts and having a reunion dinner with family on New Year's Eve. Red lanterns are popular and very common during this time too. There are also performances that can be seen. 2020 is the year of the rat while 2021 will be the year of the ox.

Another popular Chinese festival is the Lantern Festival which falls on the 15thday of the first Lunar month and is the first significant feast after Chinese New Year. The most important activity during this night is watching the Chinese lanterns and is where the festival gets its name. An alternative name for the Lantern Festival is the ‘Yuan Xiao Festival’ as every household eats yuanxiao which are rice balls stuffed with different fillings.

This festival has a history of over 2000 years with activities that appeal to all ages taking place throughout; some activities include: performing folk dances, eating yuanxiao and watching fireworks and lanterns. People can also write riddles on pieces of paper and put them on the lanterns for others to guess! If you guess the correct answer to the riddle, you are usually presented with a gift.

These are just some of the traditions that you will find during both of these festivals! Hopefully now you understand a little more about these Chinese celebrations/festivals, as well as some of the traditions and history. I hope that you have enjoyed reading about them and that you have learned something new. Have a wonderful week!

-Sophs