| Spring Festival
Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the longest and most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is often called the Lunar New Year. In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, a date between January 21 and February 20.
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| Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and together with Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival forms one of the three major Chinese holidays. For thousands of years, Duanwu has been marked by eating Zongzi and racing dragon boats.
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| Double-Seventh Day
Double-Seventh Day is on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar. On that day, people in love like to go to the temple of Matchmaker and pray for their love and the possible marriage in China. People still single will do the same thing to ask their luck of love in the Matchmaker temple. It is considered the Chinese Valentine's Day.
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| Double Ninth Festival
The 9th day of the 9th lunar month is the traditional Chongyang Festival, or Double Ninth Festival. It usually falls in October in the Gregorian calendar.
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| Hungry Ghost Festival
The Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. A solemn holiday, the Ghost Festival represents the connections between the living and the dead, earth and heaven, body and soul.
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| Hanshi - the Forerunner of Qingming
People will visit their ancestors' graves, sweep the tombs on Qingming Festival. However, in the ancient times, sweeping tombs is the activity of Hanshi(Cold Food)Festival, which was usually one day before the Qingming Festival. Since the date are so close, the two are blended into a unity during the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties.
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| Kitchen God Day
Kitchen God, named Zao Jun or Zao Shen, is an important god who dominates the household. It is believed that on the 23rd of the last month in Chinese Lunar Calendar, he returns to Heaven to report the activities of every household over the past year to the Jade Emperor, who then decides to give rewards or punishments.
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| Laba Festival and the Eight-Treasure Porridge
Laba is celebrated on the eighth day of the 12th lunar morth ,because La in Chinese means the 12th lunar month and Ba means eight. On this day,Labazhou, a kind of rice porridge is traditionally served.
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| Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people, dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in Shang Dynasty. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.
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| Qingming Festival
Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-sweeping Festival, Festival of Pure Brightness, comes around solar April 5 and is celebrated by twenty-five ethnic groups. The festival originated during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 BC- 221 BC), and has a history of over 2500 years. Although the activities may differ, it invariably centres on sweeping tombs and spring outing.
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| Winter Solstice
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. The Northern hemisphere on this day experiences the shortest daytime and longest nighttime. After the Winter Solstice, days will become longer and longer.
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| Yuanxiao Festival
Yuanxiao Festival or the Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, fourteen days after Chinese New Year's Day (around the end of January and the beginning of February). The word yuanxiao denotes the first night of the year with a full moon. On that night, streets and squares in cities and towns are festooned with lanterns of all shapes and sizes.
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| Story Behind the Double-Seventh Day
The Double-Seventh Day refers to the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar. The day is not as well-known as many other Chinese festivals. But almost everyone in China, young and old, is very familiar with the story behind this festival.
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| The Legend of Dragon Boat Festival
For thousands of years, the tradition of the Dragon Boat Festival has been passed down from one generation to the next. But where did it come from and why did people eat Zongzi and race dragon boats?
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| Chang O Flees to the Moon - Legend of Mid-Autumn Festival
There are so many variations and adaptations of the Chang'e legend that one can become overwhelmed and utterly confused. However, most legends about Chang'e in Chinese mythology involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi, Chang'e, an elixir of life and the Moon.
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| Things for Spring Festival - Meal, Couplets and Paintings
Spring Festival is the most important festival in China. All the traditional festivals in China are based on the Chinese lunar calendar. The Spring Festival marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year. There're many things came from the customs of the Spring Festival, for instance, New year meal, couplets and paintings.
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