The traditional festivals of China are indispensable treasures of Chinese cultural history. So what are the traditional festivals of China? How did these traditional festivals come into being? If you want to know more about Chinese festival-related information, follow us and take a look at Huayi Network!
What are the traditional festivals of China?
The main traditional festivals of China include: Spring Festival (the first day of the first lunar month); Lantern Festival (the fifteenth day of the first lunar month); Dragon Head Raising Day (the second day of the second lunar month) and She Festival (the second day of the second lunar month); Shangsi Festival (the third day of the third lunar month); Cold Food Festival (105 or 106 days after the Winter Solstice); Qingming Festival (after April 5th in the Gregorian calendar); Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of the fifth lunar month); Qixi Festival (the seventh day of the seventh lunar month); Zhongyuan Festival (the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month); Mid-Autumn Festival (the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month); Chongyang Festival (the ninth day of the ninth lunar month); Xiaoyuan Festival (the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month); Winter Solstice (December 21-23 in the Gregorian calendar); and New Year's Eve (the twenty-ninth or thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month), among others.
Additionally, some of the 24 solar terms are also traditional festivals, such as Qingming and Winter Solstice. These festivals combine both natural and cultural connotations, serving as both natural solar terms and traditional festivals.
How were traditional festivals formed?
The origin and development of ancient traditional festivals are a "gradually formed and gradually perfected cultural process" of human society, and a product of the evolution of human civilization. According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, the two earliest beliefs of humans were: one was the belief in heaven and earth, and the other was the belief in ancestors. The beliefs in heaven and earth and ancestors originated from the worship of nature and ancestors in the early stages of human history, which led to various rituals and worship activities. Worship is a kind of religious activity, originating from the belief in the harmonious coexistence of heaven and earth. Ancient festivals are folk culture created by people based on primitive beliefs and to adapt to their living needs. Some of the customs that have been passed down in ancient times clearly record the rich social life of the ancients, and also accumulate the profound cultural connotations of Chinese history. In ancient agricultural societies, people would hold regular festivals to worship deities and ancestors during their leisure time. The lavish offerings for worship and ancestor veneration developed into festival banquets, gradually forming some customary ways of celebration, known as festival customs. The early festival culture reflects the humanistic spirit of the ancients, such as the worship of nature, the unity of man and nature, the reverence for the end and the remembrance of origins, and the reflection on the roots. A series of ritual activities contain profound cultural connotations such as respect, gratitude, and the civilization of rites and music. The traditional festivals of the Chinese nation are diverse in form and rich in content, and they are an important part of the long history and culture of the Chinese nation, as well as a fundamental component of the framework of a civilized country.
