Festivals in China
Lu YeDanZhi(Faculty of Science & Engineering, 3rd Year)
As we know, there are a lot of festivals in China. Today, Ifd like to introduce four of them.
The Lantern Festival
Lantern Festival is a Chinafs traditional festival. It is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar year.
Lantern Festival is one of the biggest holidays in China. Several days before Lantern Festival, people begin to make lanterns. Lanterns are made in the shape of different animals, vegetables, fruits and many other things. While making lanterns, people usually write riddles on lanterns. On the eve of Lantern Festival, all the lanterns are hung up. On Lantern Festival people go outside to have a look at the lanterns and guess the riddles on them. Perhaps you can see some wonderful folk performance, Dragon Dance and Yangko. Everything is very interesting and everyone is very happy. Our lives are rich and varied.
The Mid Autumn Festival
Mid Autumn Festival is a traditional festival of China. It used to be as important as Spring Festival. It is usually celebrated in September or October. This festival is to celebrate the harvest and to enjoy the beautiful moon light. To some extent, it is like Thanksgiving Day in America or Canada. On this day, people usually get together with their families and have a nice meal. Afterwards, people always eat delicious moon cakes, and watch the moon. The moon is always very round on that day, and makes people think of their relatives and friends. It is a day of pleasure and happiness. Hope you have a wonderful Mid Autumn festival!
The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the lunar calendar. It is one of the three most important annual Chinese festivals. The other two are the Autumn Moon Festival and the Chinese New Year.
The story of this colorful festival concerns a famous Chinese scholar-statesman named Chu Yuan who, some three centuries before the birth of Christ, served the King of Chu during the Warring States period. As a loyal minister, Chu Yuan at first enjoyed the full confidence and respect of his sovereign. Eventually, through the intrigues of his rivals, he was discredited.
Chu Yuan was never able to regain the emperorfs favor and on the fifth day of the fifth moon in the year 295 B.C. (Before Christ), at the age of 37, Chu Yuan clasped a stone to his chest and plunged into the Milo River in the Hunan Province.
Respecting the minister as an upright and honest man, the people who lived in the area jumped out of their boats and rushed out in a vain search for him. This unsuccessful rescue attempt is a part of what the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates every year.
Probably the most exciting and interesting aspect of the festival is the racing of the Dragon Boats. These races not only symbolize the peoplefs attempt to save Chu Yuan, but they also demonstrate the Chinese virtues of cooperation and teamwork.
Another activity of the Festival is the making and the eating of a kind of dumpling called Tzungtzu. When it became known that Chu Yuan was gone forever, people, living along the river, threw cooked rice into the water as a sacrifice to their dead hero. They wrapped rice in bamboo leaves, and stuffed it with ham, beans, bean paste, salted egg yokes, sausages, nuts, and/or vegetables.
To the Chinese people the fifth lunar moon is more than just the Dragon Boat Festival. Since antiquity, they have believed that this month is a pestilential and danger-fraught period. Children born in this month are said to be difficult to raise, and people tend to concentrate their efforts during this time attempting to protect their families from ill and misfortune. The day of the Dragon Boat Festival is customarily during the time when cleaning and sanitation are stressed. Most families hang calamus and Artemisia above their doors, both as a decoration and as a preventive against pestilence.
Ancient folk medicines such as realgar are added to the food eaten on the Festival day. This is believed to prevent disease and to promote a healthy digestive system. The drinking of realgar in wine supposedly relieves the effects of poisons accumulated in human bodies.
The sachets are very popular with children and they vie with each other to collect as many as possible. Children are not the only ones who collect sachets. Older people are often given them as a symbol of respect, and they are highly prized because of the intricate and beautiful embroidery that adorns them.
The Dragon Boat Festival is an entertaining and enjoyable event. It gives the observer an opportunity to glimpse a part of the rich Chinese cultural heritage.
The Spring Festival
The Spring Festival, at the Chinese New Year, is the most important festival for all of us. All family members get together on New Yearfs Eve to have a big meal. At the same time, everyone celebrates with each other. At about 12 ofclock, some parents and children light crackers. The whole sky is lighted brightly. We can watch the fireworks excitedly. How busy it is!
On the first early morning of one year, many senior citizens get up early and they stick the reversed Fu or hang some couplets on the front door. Some housesf windows are stuck on red paper- cuts.
The Chinese New Year lasts for fifteen days. During those fifteen days, we always visit our relatives from door to door. At that time, children are very happy because they can get many red packets from their parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and so on. The last day of the Chinese New Year is another festival. It is named the Lantern Festival.
Then the Chinese New Year comes to an end.
