Chinese Tradition Festival

Chinese Tradition Festival By Tina Date:May.3rd.2010

Contents 目录 • Spring Festival …… 2 • Lantern’s Day …… 3 • Dragon Boat Festival …… 4 • Mid-Autumn Day …… 5 • 5. Let’s Chant! …… 6 1

Spring Festival In China, the Spring Festival in the most important festival. People usually have a long holiday. It late seven days or more. Most of the families will have a big family get-together. The whole family will have a big meal on the evening of the Spring Festival. Everyone is happy. They can watch TV and eat something fruit. The most traditional food is dumplings. The Chinese people think the dumplings will bring them good luck in the new year. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, people usually wear new clothes and visit their relatives and friends. They say “Happy New Year” to each other people. The children can get many lucky-money. They often go to the parks or go shopping. They are very happy in the Spring Festival. 2

Lantern's Day The 15th day of the 1st lunar month is the Chinese Lantern’s Day, because the first lunar month is called yuan-month and in the ancient times people called night Xiao. The 15th day is the first night to see a full moon. So the day is also called “Yuan Xiao Festival” in China. According to the Chinese tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve the puzzles on the lanterns and eat glutinous rice ball and get all their families united in the joyful atmosphere. 3

Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese Festival held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar. It has since been celebrated, in various ways, in other parts of East Asia as well, most notably Korea. The exact origins of Duan Wu are unclear, but one traditional view holds that the festival memorializes the Chinese poet Qu Yuan of the Warring States Period. He committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he was disgusted by the corruption of the Chu government. The local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fishes to prevent them from eating Qu Yuan’s body. They also sat on dragon boats, and tried to scare the fishes away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and the fierce looking dragon-head in the front of the boat. In the early years of the Chinese Republic, Duan Wu was also celebrated as "Poets' Day", due to Qu Yuan's status as China's first poet of personal renown. Today, people eat zongzi (the food originally intended to feed the fishes) and race dragon boats in memory of Qu Yuan’s dramatic death. 4

Mid-Autumn Day Mid-Autumn Day 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 havast and to enjoy the beautiful moon light. To some extent，it is like Thanksgiving Day in western countries. On this day，people usually get together with their families and have a nice meal. After that，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 relitives and friends. It is a day of pleasure and happiness. Hope you have a wonderful Mid-Autumn Day！ 5

LET'S CHANT! Sing and dance, laugh and play, eat nice food on Spring Festival. Go to the hill, go to the bay, go to the park on May Day. Compete in a dragon boat, eat Zongzi, sing the praises of Qu Yuan on Dragon Boat Festival. Eat moon cakes, watch the moon, play with lanterns at Mid-Autumn Day. 6

Thank you for watching! By Tina

Chinese Tradition Festival