Public Festivals in China

China is a country with 56 nationalities and a rich cultural heritage. Of all the public festivals, perhaps the following are the most popular ones in China.

National Day (October 1st) is the most important public festival in China as the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic.

On this day every town and village in the country are permeated with a jubilant atmosphere. In large cities people throng the streets, squares and parks in their holiday best. Main streets and public buildings are decorated with flags and flowers. In the evening these places are a blaze of light. Fireworks shooting, singing and dancing, various assemblies and exhibitions keep the whole nation busy for days.

The festivals next in importance after National Day are two New Years; one according to the Gregorian solar calendar, and the other according to the traditional lunar calendar. The former was officially established in 1911, but it has been to this day the New Year in an administrative sense only. Whereas the traditional New Year has remained the virtual festival of new year emotionally and culturally, thought it was renamed “the Spring Festival” long ago.

The solar New Year is quite eclipsed by the traditional New Year both in importance and festivity. On this one-day national holiday there is little of what you would call rousing celebrations. It is an occasion for presenting new stage, screen or TV shows, and a convenient day for holding a wedding. Otherwise it is just an ordinary holiday. For many it is no more than an extra Sunday.

The lunar New Year (the Spring Festival) is the festival of festivals, which is deep-rooted in the life and soul of hundreds of hundreds of millions of people. It is a time of family reunion, good whishes, thanksgiving, new promises, hopes for the future, and merrymaking. Although officially there are only three full days, the celebrations of the Spring Festival take place in late January or early February and last for nearly a month, beginning ten days before the end of the year and extending well past the middle of the first month of the new year. The historical reason for beginning the year during cold weather is that it is a time between the “autumn harvest and winter storage” and “spring plowing and summer weeding.” In other words, this is the time for rest and relaxation after a year’s toil, and for celebration as well.

The festivities reach their climax around the New Year’s Eve and the New Year’s Day, when there are continuous feasting and rejoicing amid the din of gong striking, drum beating and firecracker shooting. While the grown-ups occupy themselves with New Year dinner parties and mutual calls, the children enjoy the New Year entertainment such as fireworks and lantern displays, lion dance and other folk shows, visits to festival fairs, etc. Nothing is spared to make the celebrations joyous and memorable.

It is strange that the traditional New Year should seem to flourish with new vigor when the lunar calendar has been practically superseded by the solar calendar as a system of time reckoning. None of the other public festivals can compare with these two in grandeur. Women’s Day (8 March), Youth Day (4 May), Children’s Day (1 June) and the recently established Age People’s Day (9 of 9th lunar month) are festivals for particular sections of the population, although they are of course also the concern of all society. The Anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (1 July) and Army Day (1 August) are both days of great significance, but they are more of commemoration days than of public festivals.

Of the many lesser traditional festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival is perhaps the most popular. This holiday has 2,000 years of history in China. The 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar marks the middle of autumn. The traditional food of Zhong Qiu Jie (the Mid-Autumn Festival) is moon cakes. Give them as gifts or use them as bricks to build a house. Worshipping the moon is also customary, as is ceremonially sacrificing fruit to the moon. Women also stand in the moonlight in the desperate and deluded hope that they’ll get pregnant. The festival is a time for family members to gather together and enjoy the family harmony. And on the Mid-Autumn night family members and friends gather to admire the full moon while eating their moon cakes under the beautiful moon.

Every ethnic and religious group in China has its own special festivals, as the Water-Sprinkling Festival of the Dai and Corban of the Muslims. These form an important part of the cultural and spiritual life of the groups concerned.

Many of these holidays had been observed for thousands of years until they mysteriously and suddenly fell out of practice during the Cultural Revolution. Despite the fatuous decline in the observance of traditional Chinese holidays, after all, 99 percent of the conversations you have with Chinese people are like the topic of traditional Chinese holidays.

Today, besides the summer and winter vacations, Chinese kids only get off from school for ten officially recognized national holidays every year, but there are many more folk holidays that are taken with varying degrees of seriousness throughout China. China is an agricultural society, so it should be no surprise that most traditional Chinese folk holidays revolve around the lunar calendar in China.

List of public holidays in china

◎Official Public Holidays

Date

English name

Chinese name

Duration

January 1

New Year

元旦

3 days

1st day of 1st lunar month

Chinese New Year

春节

7 days

5th solar term (April 4 or April 5)

Qingming Festival

清明节

3 days

May 1

Labor Day

劳动节

3 days

5th day of 5th lunar month

Dragon Boat Festival

端午节

3 days

15th day of 8th lunar month

Mid-Autumn Festival

中秋节

3 days

October 1

National Day

国庆节

7 days

◎Additional holidays for specific social groups

Date

English name

Chinese name

Duration

Applicable to

March 8

International Women's Day

国际妇女节

half-day

Women

May 4

Youth Day

青年节

half-day

Youth from the age of 14 to 28

June 1

Children's Day

六一儿童节

1 day

Children below the age of 14

August 1

Army Day

建军节

half-day

Military personnel in active service

◎Traditional holiday scheme

Date

English name

Local name

January 1

New Year

元旦

1st day of 1st lunar month

Spring Festival

春节

15th day of 1st lunar month

Lantern Festival

元宵节

2nd day of 2nd lunar month

Zhonghe Festival  

中和节

March 8

International Women's Day

国际妇女节

March 12

Arbor Day

植树节

5th Solar Term (usually April 4–6)

Qingming Festival  

清明节

May 1

Labour Day

劳动节

May 4

Youth Day

青年节

June 1

Children's Day

六一儿童节

5th day of 5th lunar month

Dragon Boat Festival

端午节

July 1

CPC Founding Day

建党节

July 11

China National Maritime Day

中国航海日

August 1

Army Day

建军节

7th day of 7th lunar month

Double Seven Festival

七夕

15th day of 7th lunar month

Ghost Festival  

中元节

15th day of 8th lunar month

Mid-Autumn Festival  

中秋节

October 1

National Day

国庆节

9th day of 9th lunar month

Chongyang Festival

重阳节

◎Ethnic Minorities Holidays

There are public holidays celebrate by certain ethnic minorities in certain regions, which are decided by local governments. The following are holidays at province-level divisions, and there are more at lower level divisions.

Date

English name

Chinese name

Ethnic Groups

Remarks

1st day of Tibetan year

Losar

洛萨/藏历新年

Tibetan

7 days in Tibet

30.6 of Tibetan calendar

Sho Dun

雪顿节

Tibetan

1 day in Tibet

1.10 of Islamic calendar

Eid ul-Fitr

开斋节/肉孜节

Hui, Uyghur and other Muslims

2 days for all in Ningxia; 1 day for Muslims (only) in Xinjiang

10.12 of Islamic calendar

Eid al-Adha

古尔邦节

Hui, Uyghur and other Muslims

2 days for all in Ningxia; 3 days for Muslims, 1 day for others in Xinjiang

◎Novel holidays

Some Chinese young adults have begun to celebrate 11 November as Singles Day (guāng gùn jié) because of the many ones (1s) in the date.


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