Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, usually in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. As early as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25), it had become a festival with great significance.



This day's important activity is watching lanterns. Throughout the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Buddhism flourished in China. One emperor heard that Buddhist monks would watch sarira, or remains from the cremation of Buddha's body, and light lanterns to worship Buddha on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, so he ordered to light lanterns in the imperial palace and temples to show respect to Buddha on this day. Later, the Buddhist rite developed into a grand festival among common people and its influence expanded from the Central Plains to the whole of China.







Till today, the lantern festival is still held each year around the country. Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the streets, attracting countless visitors. Children will hold self-made or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets, extremely excited.

"Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential part of the Festival. Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.





People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on this day, so it is also called the "Yuanxiao Festival."Yuanxiao also has another name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour with rose petals, sesame, bean paste, jujube paste, walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling. Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or steamed. It tastes sweet and delicious. What's more, tangyuan in Chinese has a similar pronunciation with "tuanyuan”, meaning reunion. So people eat them to denote union, harmony and happiness for the family.

In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged. On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival. Some local governments will even organize a fireworks party. On the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.

Edited by CHU Xiao

Reference: http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/Festivals/78320.htm

the video about Mid-autumn Festval

Qingming Festival

Qingming Festival


　
The Qingming (Pure Brightness) Festival is one of the 24 seasonal division points in China, falling on April 4-6 each year. After the festival, the temperature will rise up and rainfall increases. It is the high time for spring plowing and sowing. But the Qingming Festival is not only a seasonal point to guide farm work, it is more a festival of commemoration.



The Qingming Festival sees a combination of sadness and happiness.



This is the most important day of sacrifice. Both the Han and minority ethnic groups at this time offer sacrifices to their ancestors and sweep the tombs of the deceased. Also, they will not cook on this day and only cold food is served.



The Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival was usually one day before the Qingming Festival. As our ancestors often extended the day to the Qingming, they were later combined.



On each Qingming Festival, all cemeteries are crowded with people who came to sweep tombs and offer sacrifices. Traffic on the way to the cemeteries becomes extremely jammed. The customs have been greatly simplified today. After slightly sweeping the tombs, people offer food, flowers and favorites of the dead, then burn incense and paper money and bow before the memorial tablet.



In contrast to the sadness of the tomb sweepers, people also enjoy hope of Spring on this day. The Qingming Festival is a time when the sun shines brightly, the trees and grass become green and nature is again lively. Since ancient times, people have followed the custom of Spring outings. At this time tourists are everywhere.



People love to fly kites during the Qingming Festival. Kite flying is actually not limited to the Qingming Festival. Its uniqueness lies in that people fly kites not during the day, but also at night. A string of little lanterns tied onto the kite or the thread look like shining stars, and therefore, are called "god's lanterns."



The Qingming Festival is also a time to plant trees, for the survival rate of saplings is high and trees grow fast later. In the past, the Qingming Festival was called "Arbor Day". But since 1979, "Arbor Day" was settled as March 12 according to the Gregorian calendar.


by: jason(qingzhao guo)
reference:qingming festival viewd 30 march 2010http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/Festivals/78319.htm

Mid-Autumn Festival

Chinese people love festivals and there are many festivities. Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most popular ones. In fact it is so popular that many places in China designate it as a public holiday. Many historians come up with different versions as to the origin of this festival. I am more in favor that Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival to celebrate the harvest for the year. China has been an agricultural country for thousands of years. After a full year of hard labor, the farmers have to find a way to celebrate after the harvest is done. There is no better month to hold the occasion than August. And what better day than the 15th of August ( lunar calendar ) when the moon is full. It is no coincidence that this year (1998), the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on October 5th and the Thanksgiving Day in Canada falls on October 12th, just one week apart. Both days are celebrating the harvest time.

The legends, folklores and mythology associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival are many and you can find them under other topics in this special feature. It also plays a part in the Chinese history. While Chu Yuen-chang [¦¶ ¤¸ ¼ý] was able to take advantage of the Festival and passed his war messages in the moon cakes, Li Yu [(§õ ·Ô ] was not as fortunate. After surrendering his kingdom to the Emperor of Sung , Li was under house arrest in the capital. The beautiful autumn moon can only bring him great grief and he was executive by the Emperor after writing this famous Ci.

Moon is a favorite subject for the poets. In this section, you will be able to find a good selection of them. You will also find out other than in poems, moon is often used to name places and scenic spots. Many parents use moon to name their daughters. Many restaurants are named after moon. A good poem can also be attractive to tourists as is the case with this famous poem by Zhang Ji [Chang Chi]:

Moon is certainly a marvel to be admired up in the sky. It is clear, bright and brilliant. However, it is also far, distant and cold, not exactly a good place to be lived in, as correctly pointed out by poet Li ShanYin

[Other poems]

It is this earth, our countries, our communities, our families, our friends and our loved ones that we should treasure. I would like to conclude this introduction with great poet Su Shi 's ( Ĭ ªF ©Y ¡^ " ¤ô ½Õ ºq ÀY ; and I wish that you always be able to admire the moon and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with your loved ones.

[Other poems]

--By Julian Yiu

Reference: http://www.chinapage.com/Moon/moon-intro.html