The traditional Chinese festivals are
an essential part of harvests or prayer offerings. The most important Chinese
festival is the Chinese
New Year (Spring Festival),
which is also celebrated in China, Korea, and other Asian countries.
All traditional festivals are scheduled according to the Chinese
calendar except the Qing Ming
and Winter Solstice days, falling on the respective day in the
Agricultural calendar. There are a lot of Chinese cultures in traditional
Chinese festivals.
1) Chinese
New Year
Chinese New Year is an important traditional
Chinese festival In China, it is also known as the Spring Festival, the literal
translation of the modern Chinese name. Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally
ran from Chinese New Year's Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese
calendar, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, making
the festival the longest in the Chinese calendar. Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred
to as the "Lunar New Year”.
a)Reunion Dinner
A reunion dinner is held on New Year’s Eve during which family members gather for
celebration. The venue will usually be in or near the home of the most senior
member of the family. Children are supposed to
return to their families, married couples will go to the male’s relatives and
to the female's relatives on the second day of the festivities. If a family member couldn't
participate in the grand feasting, his or her presence is usually symbolized by
placing an empty seat at the banquet.The
New Year's Eve dinner is very large and sumptuous and traditionally includes
dishes of meat.
B) Red
Envelopes
Traditionally, Red envelopes or red packets (Mandarin: hóngbāo' ) are
passed out during the Chinese New Year's celebrations, from married couples or
the elderly to unmarried juniors. It is also common for adults or young couples
to give red packets to children.
A
married person would not turn down such a request as it would mean that he or
she would be "out of luck" in the new year. Red packets are generally
given by established married couples to the younger non-married children of the
family. It is custom and polite for children to wish elders a happy new year and
a year of happiness, health and good fortune before accepting the red envelope.
C) Lion
Dance
Lion dance performance is everywhere while
celebrating Chinese New Year. Lion
dance is performed for helping to chase away the bad luck & bringing in
luck and according to the traditional Chinese belief, it’ll also help to chase
away ghosts
and evil spirits, and since the monsters, ghosts, evil spirits and giants like Nian are afraid of loud noises, the
dance has become a natural complement to the fire crackers' noise.
2)
Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival
ends the 15 day celebration of Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring
Festival, and is celebrated the night of the first full moon of the lunar New
Year. It’s also the first important festival after the traditional Chinese New Year. It’s marks the end of the two-week
new year period. During Lantern Festival, people get together to celebrate the
beginning of spring by lighting lantern, guessing riddles, and eating YuanXiao,
also known as TangYuan, is a
glutinous rice ball.
a)
Lighting Lanterns
Lighting
and watching lanterns, the main activity of lantern festival. Lanterns
represent brightness, lighting lanterns could bring a brighter future for
yourself. Besides, in some regions such as Taiwan and Anhui, the character
‘deng’ (lantern) is pronounced similarly to ‘ding’ (man) in local languages.
Therefore, married women would specially wander underneath the lanterns during
the festival, wishing to conceive baby boys from this behavior.
b)
Guess Riddles
Guessing
the lantern riddles, also known as playing lantern riddles, is one of the most
important and popular activities of the Lantern Festival. Riddles are usually
attached on to or hung beneath the lanterns. Sometimes winners would be get
prizes if he or she’s guessing is right. Due to the difficulty of achieving the
correct answers, this activity is also called “tiger-shooting”.
c) Yuanxiao
Another
indispensable custom of Lantern Festival, in addition to entertainment and
beautiful lanterns, is eating Yuanxiao or Tangyuan (sweet stuffed dumplings
made of glutinous rice flour served in soup). The Chinese name of Tangyuan is
pronounced as similarly as Tuanyuan, which means the whole family gathering
together happily.
So
Yuanxiao is a symbol of staying together, because roundness has the connotation
of wholeness and togetherness in Chinese culture. In this way, people express
their best wish for their family and their future life.
3)
Mid-Autumn Festival
The
Mid-Autumn Festival is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and
Vietnamese people. The festival is held on the 15th day of the
eighth month in the Chinese calendar, during a full moon, which is in September
or early October in the Gregorian calendar, close to the autumnal equinox.
Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as Moon festival, because of the
celebration’s association with the full moon on this night, as well as the
traditions of moon worship and moon gazing.
a)
Mooncake
As
with every Chinese holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival has its own special food.
People eat moon cakes for celebration. The moon cake is a kind of cookie with
various fillings and on the surface are printed different artistic
patterns depicting the story of Chang E flying to the moon. People treated this
kind of food as one of the sacrificial offerings to the moon in the old days.
Today, it has become an indispensable food while appreciating the bright moon
for every family. Moon cakes come in various flavors which change according to
the region but common fillings are nuts, sugar, sesame, ham and egg yolk.
As
the moon cake is round in shape, it symbolizes the reunion of a family, so it
is easy to understand how the eating of moon cakes under the round moon can
inspire the missing of distant relatives. Nowadays, people present the moon
cakes to relatives and friends to demonstrate that they wish them a long and
happy life.
b)
Appreciating and Offering Sacrifice to the Moonlight
Simple
appreciation of the moon already means of sacrifice to the moon. Members of a
family usually sit around a table eating and talking to their heart content and
at the same time admiring the bright moon. While looking up the moon, people
will think of their relatives afar and good wishes are expressed in their mind.
Well, there are still a lot of
Chinese cultures in traditional Chinese festivals I didn’t mention about
because Chinese culture is too
extensive.
Written
by,
Fong Chee Foo,
Group
Six,
Foundation in Arts,
July
Intake.
