中国传统节日英文介绍
As well known, different countries have different customs and cultures. With the development of
New Year —元旦
It falls on the first day of the year. It marks the beginning of a year. People will plan what to do in the new year. Because they believe that the whole year's work depends on a good start in spring.
Spring Festival —春节
Spring Festival is the most important festival inChina. It is on the first day of the first lunar month(阴历正月). On the eve of the festival, people will paste spring poems(贴春联)with lucky words. They prepare delicious food, dumpling is a must. They also clean their house, but there is no sweeping on spring festival for people think it will sweep away good luck. People often come back home to enjoy family reunion, the whole family will get together for the big dinner. They also exchange greeting with other friends and relatives.
Lantern Festival 元宵节
It comes on the 15th of the first lunar month and it marks the end of the Spring Festival. On this day, people often eat sweet dumplings(元宵)for good luck. They will visit the display of lanterns(灯展)or go for temple fair(庙会)
Qingming 清明节
Qingming —It is also called Tomb-Sweeping Day. It falls on April 4th or 5th . That is a special day for the living to show love and respect to their dead friends or relatives. People often go to sweep the tomb and put the meat, wine in front of the tomb. One interesting thing is that people burn the paper money for the dead.
Dragon Boat Festival 端午节
This day is on the fifth of the fifth lunar month, People often get together to watch the wonderful “Dragon Boat Race”(龙舟大赛)，Rice dumpling is a must on Dragon Boat Festival.
Mid-autumn Day —中秋节
It comes on the 15th of the eighth lunar month. People often gaze at the “Lady in the moon”(嫦娥) and eat moon cakes.
1. Spring Festival
Spring Festival is known as the most important Festival in China. During the holiday, people go back to hometown from everywhere no matter how far the distance is. They prepare various delicious food and presents for the Spring Festival Eve. Chinese will have a happy family union in the Spring Festival Eve, they believe that’s the end day of last year and they will stay up for good luck until the first day of next year.
In China, the most traditional and popular Spring Festival food is dumpling, which looks like the moon with vegetables and meat mixed in it. The Chinese name of dumpling is “JIAO ZI”, ”JIAO” means ”cross”, ”ZI” is Chinese traditional time represents “24:, so the Chinese word “JIAO ZI” means “cross 24:, just the dividing point of last year and next year. So when it comes to 24:00, every family begins eating dumplings. Firecracker is also necessary for Spring Festival, the story of Firecracker is: Long ago, in a small village, there appeared a savage animal called “NIAN”, this animal always came out to eat people in the Eve. One day, villagers found three things can make “NIAN” scared: Red color, Fire and noise. So when “NIAN” came again, villagers put up red paper on the door and set firecracker everywhere. After that, “NIAN” disappeared from that village. Now putting up red paper on the door and setting firecracker becomes Spring Festival customs and people believe doing these will bring their family safety.
Spring Festival is also the happiest time for children, because they can get red envelope containing money as a gift from the elder. During the Spring Festival, any unfortunate word cannot be heard because it will make people upset and unhappy. People also make use of this holiday to visit their relatives and bring them some presents and well-wishing.
2. The Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival is January 15 on the lunar calendar. The lunar January is the first month of a year and 15this the first day of full moon. Therefore, Lantern Festival is an important Festival right after Spring Festival.
During Lantern Festival, people go along the street to watch lanterns and children light their own small lanterns for some fun. The biggest and most beautiful lantern is the dragon lantern, which looks like a flying dragon, held by several young guys. One with a ball in hand leads the dragon to move.
Some lanterns have puzzles on them, called lantern puzzle, the one who gets the answer could receive small presents and be happy for his intelligence.
The traditional food for Lantern Festival is rice glue ball. Rice glue ball is a flavor ball with filling in it, for example, peanut filling, sesame filling and jam filling…,the rice glue ball’s shape is just like the full moon appears in the sky. This kind of dessert is especially welcomed by children.
3. Tomb- sweeping Day
Tomb–sweep Day is an ancient festival in spring, also called Qing Ming Festival. In ancient China, the emperor worshipped heaven and earth in order to bless for harvest. People worshipped their ancestors with sacrifice and showed their missing for ancestors.
Tomb-sweeping Day, are always rainy days, just like the sky crying for dead people. A Chinese poem described as following:
Qing Ming usually comes with rainy days
Passengers on the way are full of soreness
I ask a Buffalo boy for tavern to release my sadness
He points to the village covered by apricot blossoms
This poem “The Day of Qing Ming” is written by a poet called Du Mu in Tang Dynasty. Qing Ming Festival is the day to worship his mother with family, but the writer goes alone in the rainy days as a passenger far from his hometown, he felt deeply upset and sorrowed. He has to find a tavern to have a drink, perhaps in this way he will release himself from sadness.
4. The Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is in May 5thon the lunar calendar. The beginning of this festival is in memory of Qu Yuan, a wise minister and poet in Chu dynasty, who jumped into Mi Luo River in lunar May 5th for despair of country, unfair treat and defamation. People threw rice dumplings to River to protect his body from eating by fish and showed their respect for Qu Yuan’s noble spirit.
In recent China, people also eat rice dumplings in Dragon Boat Festival. From the name, we can directly know the campaign of this festival is Dragon Boating. A team of strong men on the Dragon Boat will try their best to win 1st and show Chinese strongest spirits.
People use moxa to clean themselves and use five-color thread crossing small children’s arms and fingers to keep illness far away.
5. Mid-Autumn Day
Mid-autumn Day is August 15thon lunar calendar. According to history records, Chinese emperor has tradition that worship the Sun in spring and worship the Moon in autumn. As august 15this exactly the middle of autumn, so it is called Mid-Autumn Day
There are a lot of stories about the moon since ancient China.
One most famous story is Chang’e flying to the moon. Thousands of years ago, there were 9 suns in the sky, many people felt too hot to live. A young man called Yi was brave enough and shot 8 suns to the ground and saved people. One day Yi got a potion of elixir from Queen Mother and gave his wife Chang’e to keep. A man named Peng Meng knew about the elixir and wanted to get it from Chang’e. One day when Yi was out for hunting, Peng Meng went to rob the elixir. In order to protect the elixir, Chang’e swallowed all of the elixir then flied to the moon.
In memory of Chang’e, she is recognized as the goddess of the moon.
The traditional food of Mid-Autumn Day is Moon cake, a round baked cake with fillings in it. The round shape of moon cake represents family reunion. In the night of Mid-Autumn Day, every family has moon cake and watches the moon.
6. The Double Ninth Festival
The Double Ninth Festival is an important traditional Chinese festival in September 9thon lunar calendar. It is the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, ancient Chinese believes nine represents sun, the brightest thing, September 9th has two nine, the sun is doubled, so call it Double Ninth Festival. Nine also means Long in Chinese words, so the Double Ninth Festival is also recognized The Old Festival.
In Double Ninth Festival, people go to their ancestors’ tombs to worship with coat for winner.
The campaign for Double Ninth Festival is climbing mountain and planting a kind of plant called “Zhu Yu”. A poem written by famous Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei is as following:
I stay alone as a visitor in a country foreign
The festival makes me feel homesick and missing
My brothers must have already climbed to High Mountain
Everyone can plant ZhuYu there except me, a lonely person
This poem’s name is “On the Double-ninth Day thinking of my brothers”. This poem is full of sadness and homesick.
In autumn, chrysanthemum is in blossom. People can look at the beautiful flowers and climb mountains as they like.
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