The Spring Festival is an important Chinese holiday that originated in the Shang Dynasty and falls on the first day of the first lunar month. Traditions include cleaning homes, decorating with couplets and pictures, hanging lanterns, and spending time with family over the first three days. The Lantern Festival falls 15 days later and involves watching lanterns, guessing riddles, and eating rice dumplings. Other festivals described include Qingming (sweeping tombs), Dragon Boat Racing, the Double Seventh Festival celebrating the Cowherd and Weaver Maid star-crossed lovers, and the Mid-Autumn Festival involving the story of Hou Yi.

3. Spring Festival
 The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one
month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang
Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and
ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one.

 Strictly speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of
the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next
year. Of them, the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the
first three days. The Chinese government now stipulates people have
seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

 Many customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed
today, but others have weakened.

4. Spring Festival
 Before the New Year comes, the people completely clean the
indoors and outdoors of their homes as well as their clothes,
bedclothes and all their utensils.

 Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an
atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will
be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese
calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content
varies from house owners' wishes for a bright future to good
luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and
wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits
and welcome peace and abundance.

5.  The Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or
happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can
be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese
the "reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu comes",
both being pronounced as "fudaole." What's more,
two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of
the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on
window glass and brightly colored New Year
paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on
the wall.

6. Lantern Festival
 The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, usually
in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. As early as the Western
Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25), it had become a festival with great
significance.

 This day's important activity is watching lanterns. Throughout the Han
Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Buddhism flourished in China. One emperor
heard that Buddhist monks would watch sarira, or remains from the
cremation of Buddha's body, and light lanterns to worship Buddha on the
15th day of the 1st lunar month, so he ordered to light lanterns in the
imperial palace and temples to show respect to Buddha on this day. Later,
the Buddhist rite developed into a grand festival among common people
and its influence expanded from the Central Plains to the whole of China.

7. Lantern Festival
 Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential part of the
Festival. Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of
paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have
solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out
and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If
they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity
emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the
Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is
interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular
among all social strata.

8.  People will eat yuanxiao, or rice
dumplings, on this day, so it is also
called the "Yuanxiao
Festival."Yuanxiao also has another
name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling
balls made of glutinous rice flour
with rose petals, sesame, bean paste,
jujube paste, walnut meat, dried
fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling.
Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or
steamed. It tastes sweet and
delicious. What's more, tangyuan in
Chinese has a similar pronunciation
with "tuanyuan”, meaning reunion.
So people eat them to denote union,
harmony and happiness for the
family.

9. Qingming Festival
 The Qingming (Pure Brightness)
Festival is one of the 24 seasonal
division points in China, falling
on April 4-6 each year. After the
festival, the temperature will rise
up and rainfall increases. It is the
high time for spring plowing and
sowing. But the Qingming
Festival is not only a seasonal
point to guide farm work, it is
more a festival of
commemoration.

 The Qingming Festival sees a
combination of sadness and
happiness.

10.  The Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival was usually one day before
the Qingming Festival. As our ancestors often extended the
day to the Qingming, they were later combined.
 On each Qingming Festival, all cemeteries are crowded with
people who came to sweep tombs and offer sacrifices. Traffic
on the way to the cemeteries becomes extremely jammed. The
customs have been greatly simplified today. After slightly
sweeping the tombs, people offer food, flowers and favorites
of the dead, then burn incense and paper money and bow
before the memorial tablet.

11. 
Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival, the 5th day of the 5th lunar
month, has had a history of more than 2,000 years. It is
usually in June in the Gregorian calendar.
 Dragon boat racing is an indispensable part of the festival,
held all over the country. As the gun is fired, people will
see racers in dragon-shaped canoes pulling the oars
harmoniously and hurriedly, accompanied by rapid drums,
speeding toward their destination. Folk tales say the game
originates from the activities of seeking Qu Yuan's body,
but experts, after painstaking and meticulous research,
conclude that dragon boat racing is a semi-religious, semi-
entertaining program from the Warring States Period (475-
221 BC). In the following thousands of years, the game
spread to Japan, Vietnam and Britain as well as China's
Taiwan and Hong Kong. Now dragon boat racing has
developed into an aquatic sports item which features both
Chinese tradition and modern sporting spirit. In 1980, it
was listed into the state sports competition programs and
has since been held every year. The award is called "Qu
Yuan Cup."

12. 
Double Seventh7th day of the 7th lunar
The Double Seventh Festival, on the
Festival
month, is a traditional festival full of romance. It often goes
into August in the Gregorian calendar.
 This festival is in mid-summer when the weather is warm and
the grass and trees reveal their luxurious greens. At night
when the sky is dotted with stars, and people can see the
Milky Way spanning from the north to the south. On each
bank of it is a bright star, which see each other from afar. They
are the Cowherd and Weaver Maid, and about them there is a
beautiful love story passed down from generation to
generation.

13.  Long, long ago, there was an honest and kind-hearted fellow named Niu
Lang (Cowhand). His parents died when he was a child. Later he was
driven out of his home by his sister-in-law. So he lived by himself herding
cattle and farming. One day, a fairy from heaven Zhi Nu (Weaver Maid)
fell in love with him and came down secretly to earth and married him. The
cowhand farmed in the field and the Weaver Maid wove at home. They
lived a happy life and gave birth to a boy and a girl. Unfortunately, the
God of Heaven soon found out the fact and ordered the Queen Mother of
the Western Heavens to bring the Weaver Maid back.
 With the help of celestial cattle, the Cowhand flew to heaven with his son
and daughter. At the time when he was about to catch up with his wife, the
Queen Mother took off one of her gold hairpins and made a stroke. One
billowy river appeared in front of the Cowhand. The Cowhand and Weaver
Maid were separated on the two banks forever and could only feel their
tears. Their loyalty to love touched magpies, so tens of thousands of
magpies came to build a bridge for the Cowhand and Weaver Maid to meet
each other. The Queen Mother was eventually moved and allowed them to
meet each year on the 7th of the 7th lunar month. Hence their meeting date
has been called "Qi Xi" (Double Seventh).

14. Mid-Autumn Festival
 The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month,
usually in October in Gregorian calendar.
 Folklore about the origin of the festival go like this: In remote antiquity,
there were ten suns rising in the sky, which scorched all crops and drove
people into dire poverty. A hero named Hou Yi was much worried about
this, he ascended to the top of the Kunlun Mountain and, directing his
superhuman strength to full extent, drew his extraordinary bow and shot
down the nine superfluous suns one after another. He also ordered the last
sun to rise and set according to time. For this reason, he was respected and
loved by the people and lots of people of ideals and integrity came to him
to learn martial arts from him. A person named Peng Meng lurked in
them.

15.  Hou Yi had a beautiful and kindhearted wife named Chang E. One day on
his way to the Kunlun Mountain to call on friends, he ran upon the
Empress of Heaven Wangmu who was passing by. Empress Wangmu
presented to him a parcel of elixir, by taking which, it was said, one would
ascend immediately to heaven and become a celestial being. Hou Yi,
however, hated to part with his wife. So he gave the elixir to Chang E to
treasure for the time being. Chang E hid the parcel in a treasure box at her
dressing table when, unexpectedly, it was seen by Peng Meng.
 One day when Hou Yi led his disciples to go hunting, Peng Meng, sword
in hand, rushed into the inner chamber and forced Chang E to hand over
the elixir. Aware that she was unable to defeat Peng Meng, Chang E made
a prompt decision at that critical moment. She turned round to open her
treasure box, took up the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp. As soon as
she swallowed the elixir her body floated off the ground, dashed out of the
window and flew towards heaven. Peng Meng escaped.

16.  When Hou Yi returned home at dark, he knew from the maidservants what had
happened. Overcome with grief, Hou Yi looked up into the night sky and called out
the name of his beloved wife when, to his surprise, he found that the moon was
especially clear and bight and on it there was a swaying shadow that was exactly
like his wife. He tried his best to chase after the moon. But as he ran, the moon
retreated; as he withdrew, the moon came back. He could not get to the moon at all.
 Thinking of his wife day and night, Hou Yi then had an incense table arranged in
the back garden that Chang E loved. Putting on the table sweetmeats and fresh
fruits Chang E enjoyed most, Hou Yi held at a distance a memorial ceremony for
Chang E who was sentimentally attached to him in the palace of the moon.
 When people heard of the story that Chang E had turned into a celestial being, they
arranged the incense table in the moonlight one after another and prayed
kindhearted Chang E for good fortune and peace. From then on the custom of
worshiping the moon spread among the people.

 People in different places follow various customs, but all show their love and
longing for a better life. Today people will enjoy the full moon and eat moon cakes
on that day.

17. 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. In an ancient and mysterious book Yi Jing, or The Book
of Changes, number "6" was thought to be of Yin character, meaning feminine or negative, while number
"9" was thought to be Yang, meaning masculine or positive. So the number nine in both month and day
create the Double Ninth Festival, or Chongyang Festival. Chong in Chinese means "double." Also, as
double ninth was pronounced the same as the word to signify "forever", both are "Jiu Jiu," the Chinese
ancestors considered it an auspicious day worth celebration. That's why ancient Chinese began to
celebrate this festival long time ago.
 The custom of ascending a height to avoid epidemics was passed down from long time ago. Therefore, the
Double Ninth Festival is also called "Height Ascending Festival". The height people will reach is usually
a mountain or a tower. Ancient literary figures have left many poems depicting the activity. Even today,
people still swarm to famous or little known mountains on this day
 In 1989, the Chinese government decided the Double Ninth Festival as Seniors' Day. Since then, all
government units, organizations and streets communities will organize an autumn trip each year for those
who have retired from their posts. At the waterside or on the mountains, the seniors will find themselves
merged into nature. Younger generations will bring elder ones to suburban areas or send gifts to them on
this day.

18. Winter Solstice Festival
 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. It is the earliest of
the 24 seasonal division points. The time will be each December 22
or 23 according to the Gregorian calendar.
 The Northern hemisphere on this day experiences the shortest
daytime and longest nighttime. After the Winter Solstice, days will
become longer and longer. As ancient Chinese thought, the yang, or
muscular, positive things will become stronger and stronger after
this day, so it should be celebrated.

19.  In some parts of Northern China, people eat dumpling soup on this day;
while residents of some other places eat dumplings, saying doing so will
keep them from frost in the upcoming winter. But in parts of South China,
the whole family will get together to have a meal made of red-bean and
glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and other evil things. In other places,
people also eat tangyuan, a kind of stuffed small dumpling ball made of
glutinous rice flour. The Winter Solstice rice dumplings could be used as
sacrifices to ancestors, or gifts for friends and relatives. The Taiwan
people even keep the custom of offering nine-layer cakes to their
ancestors. They make cakes in the shape of chicken, duck, tortoise, pig,
cow or sheep with glutinous rice flour and steam them on different layers
of a pot. These animals all signify auspiciousness in Chinese tradition.
People of the same surname or family clan gather at their ancestral
temples to worship their ancestors in age order. After the sacrificial
ceremony, there is always a grand banquet.