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CHINA
Public
Holidays
January/February New Year. Celebrated during the first
two weeks of the new lunar year.
February Tiancang Festival. On the twentieth
day of the first lunar month Chinese peasants celebrate Tiancang,
or Granary Filling Day, in the hope of ensuring a good harvest later
in the year.
March Guanyin's Birthday.
Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, and probably China's most popular
deity, is celebrated, most colourfully in Taoist temples, on the
nineteenth day of the second lunar month.
April
5 Qing-Ming Festival. This festival (Tomb Sweeping Day)
is the time to visit the graves of ancestors and burn ghost money
in honour of the departed.
April 13-15 Water Splashing
Festival. Popular in Yunnan Province. Anyone on the streets
is fair game for a soaking.
May 4 Youth Day.
Commemorating the student demonstrators in Tian'anmen Square in
1919, which gave rise to the Nationalist "May Fourth Movement".
It's marked in most cities with flower displays.
June
1 Children's Day. Most schools go on field trips, so if
you're visiting a popular tourist site be prepared for mobs of kids
in yellow baseball caps.
June/July Dragon-boat
Festival. On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month dragon-boat
races are held in memory of the poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself
in 280 BC. Some of the most famous venues for this festival in the
country are Yueyang in Hunan Province, and Hong Kong. The traditional
food to accompany the celebrations is zongzi (lotus-wrapped rice
packets).
August/September Ghost Festival.
The Chinese equivalent of Halloween, this is a time when ghosts
from hell are supposed to walk the earth. It's not celebrated so
much as observed; it's regarded as an inauspicious time to travel,
move house or get married.
September/October Moon
Festival. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the
lunar calendar the Chinese celebrate the Moon Festival, also known
as the Mid-autumn Festival, a time of family reunion that is celebrated
with fireworks and lanterns. Moon cakes, biscuits with a rich filling
of sugar, sesame and walnut, are eaten, and plenty of moutai is
consumed. In Hong Kong, the cakes are stuffed with duck eggs.
September/October Double Ninth Festival. Nine
is a number associated with yang, or male energy, and on the ninth
day of the ninth lunar month such qualities as assertiveness and
strength are celebrated. It's believed to be a good time for the
distillation (and consumption) of spirits.
September
28 Confucius Festival. The birthday of Confucius is marked
by celebrations at all Confucian temples. It's a good time to visit
Qufu, in Shandong Province, when elaborate ceremonies are held in
the temple there.
October 1 National Day.
Everyone has a day off to celebrate the founding of the People's
Republic. TV is even more dire than usual as it's full of programmes
celebrating Party achievements.
December 25 Christmas.
This is marked as a religious event only by the faithful, but for
everyone else it's an excuse for a feast and a party. |
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