Chinese Festival The most fascinating part of the culture Tungyi Huang
Chinese Festival
The most fascinating part of the culture
Tungyi Huang
Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as ‘Spring Festival’.
Decorations of chinese new year
Dragon & Lion Dance
People stick couplets on the wall.
Original Legend The beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again.
Setting off the fireworks
Custom At Chinese New Year’s Eve, Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner. In addition, people will pour out their money to buy presents, decorations, material, food, and clothing. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean the house, in order to sweep away any ill fortune and to make way for good incoming luck, adults will give red envelope to children and many people will set off the fireworks on the streets. Furthermore, windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets of “good fortune” or “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity.” Many public location will perform Dragon & Lion Dance to celebrate new year.
Lantern Festival
Thousands of people set off flying lanterns to the sky.
Lanterns
The Lantern Festival in Taiwan which also known as the Yuanxiao Festival or Shangyuan Festival in China, Chap Goh Meh Festival in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and Yuen Siu Festival in Hong Kong is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar year in the lunar calendar. In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple and only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones; in modern times, lanterns have been being embellished with many complex designs. For example, lanterns are now often made in shapes of animals. The lanterns can symbolize the people letting go of their past selves and getting a new one, which they will let go of the next year.
Original Legend The Jade Emperor is the god of heaven whose favorite crane sequentially hunted and killed. The Emperor of Heaven gets furious when he hears about this, he promulgate an edict immediately, let the heaven’s soldiers set fire to mortal world every 15th day of the first month in lunar calendar, and burn out everything in mortal’s world. The Emperor’s daughter is very kindhearted, she couldn’t watch innocent people suffering, so she come to the mortal world by cloud secretly and risk her life to pass the news to people. Certainly, people are appalled by the message and felt like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. After a long time, an old man come up with an idea, he said: “At 14th, 15th, 16th of the first month, every household turn on the lanterns, burn firecrackers, and lit smoke. Then the Emperor’s soldiers would think that people have been burned to death.” Everyone nods and prepares separately. In the fifteenth day evening, the Emperor of heaven look at the earth and there are full of red lights and deafening noise. Additionally, it continues for three nights; therefore he thinks that it is the burning flame of fire and feel very well and satisfied. Fortunately, people keep their lives and property. To commemorate this success, every household hangs Chinese lanterns and burns firecrackers to mark the occasion at this day.
The Jade Emperor
Yuanxiao/Tangyuan
Dragon shaped lantern
Custom Nowadays, people will try to solve puzzles on lanterns, write some blessing sentences or wishes on flying lanterns then set them off to the sky and eat glutinous rice balls named after the festival which called as Yuanxiao or Tangyuan.
Dragon Boat Festival The festival celebrates on the 5th May of the Chinese calendar.
Zongzi
Dragon boat and dragon boat racing
Original Legend The traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BCE) of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance; he was accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the capital of Chu. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month. It is said that the local people, who admired him, dropped sticky rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to feed the fish. The rice was wrapped so that fish would not eat Qu Yuan’s body and eat the rice instead. This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.
Custom • Eating zongzi.
Zongzi are pyramid-shaped dumplings made of glutinous rice, stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. This traditional food is popular during the Dragon Boat Festival.
• Drinking realgar wine.
Realgar wine is Chinese liquor seasoned with realgar. It is a custom to drink the wine during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Qu Yuan
• Dragon boat racing.
Dragon boat racing is a traditional game where crews of 22 seated in long, dragon-shaped boats race lengths of up to 2000m. The Races are an indispensable part of the Dragon Boat Festival and are held all over China.
• Wearing a sachet.
Parents first sew little bags with colorful silk cloth, then fill the bags with perfumes or herbal medicines, and finally string them with silk thread. The sachet, which is said to be able to ward off evil.
Children wear sachet
Chinese Valentine’s Day This festival falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the lunar calendar and girls traditionally demonstrate their domestic arts, especially melon carving, on this day and make wishes for a good husband.
The Cowherd and the Girl Weaver meet at the bridge made by magpie.
Original Legend The Jade Emperor has a daughter named Zhinü She is most often represented as responsible for weaving colorful clouds in the heaven. In some versions she is the Goddess Weaver, daughter of the Jade Emperor and the Celestial Queen Mother, who weaves the Silver River (known in the West as the Milky Way), which gives light to heaven and earth. In other versions, she is a seamstress who works for the Jade Emperor. Every day Zhinü descended to earth with the aid of a magical robe to bathe. One day, a lowly cowherd named Niu Lang spotted Zhinü as she bathed in a stream. Niu Lang fell instantly in love with her and stole her magic robe which she had left on the bank of the stream, leaving her unable to escape back to Heaven. When Zhinü emerged from the water, Niu Lang grabbed her and carried her back to his home. When the Jade Emperor heard of this matter, he was furious but unable to intercede, since in the meantime his daughter had fallen in love and married the cowherd. As time passed, Zhinü grew homesick and began to miss her father. One day, she came across a box containing her magic robe which her husband had hidden. She decided to visit her father back in Heaven, but once she returned, the Jade Emperor summoned a river to
flow across the sky, which Zhinü was unable to cross to return to her husband. The Emperor took pity on the young lovers, and so once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, he allows them to meet on a bridge over the river.
Stars of the Cowherd and the Girl Weaver beside the galaxy.
Custom Girls to throw a sewing needle into a bowl full of water on the night of Qixi as a test of embroidery skills. If the needle floats on top of the water instead of sinking, it proves the girl is good at embroidery. Single women also pray for finding a good husband in the future. And the newly married women pray to become pregnant quickly. People say that on this day it will rain, because of the crying in heaven. Others say that if you stand under grapevines on this night, you can hear the lovers talking.
People write some wishes and hang on the bamboo.
Chang’e
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 lunar calendar, during a full moon, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar, close to the autumnal equinox.
Original Legend
Custom
Once upon a time, there was a hero named Hou Yi who was excellent at shooting. His wife was Chang’e. One year, the ten suns rose in the sky together, causing great disaster to people, so Yi shot down nine of them and left only one to provide light. An immortal admired Yi and sent him the elixir of immortality. Yi did not want to leave Chang’e and be immortal without her, so he let Chang’e keep the elixir. However, Feng Meng, one of his apprentices, knew this secret and he wanted to stole it. On the fifteenth of August in the lunar calendar, when Yi went to hunting, Feng Meng broke into Yi’s house and forced Chang’e to give the elixir to him, but Chang’e refused to do so. Instead, she swallowed it and flew into the sky. Because of Chang’e’s love of her husband, she chose the moon for her residence. When Yi came back and knew what had happened, he felt so sad, then he displayed the fruits and cakes which Chang’e liked in the yard and gave sacrifices to his wife. People soon learned about these activities and they also sympathized with Chang’e, so they participated in these sacrifices with Yi.
The festival was a time to enjoy the successful reaping of rice and wheat with food offerings made in honor of the moon. Today, it is still an occasion for outdoor reunions among friends and relatives to eat mooncakes, and watch the moon, a symbol of harmony and unity; in addition, a notable part of celebrating the holiday is carrying brightly lit lanterns on the streets and some public locations will write riddles on lanterns and let people try to guess the answers.
Pomelos
Riddles on lanterns
Mooncakes
Qingming Festival The Qingming festival falls on the first day of the fifth solar term, named Qingming. Its name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime and tend to the graves of departed ones. The Qingming Festival is an opportunity for celebrants to remember and honour their ancestors at grave sites.
People eat cold food and drink cold tea.
Family prays in front of the tomb.
Panorama of Along the River During the Qingming Festival, 12th century original by Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145)
Original Legend Qingming Festival is when Chinese people visit the graves or burial grounds of their ancestors. Traditionally, people brought a whole rooster with them to the graves visited but the occasion has become less formal over time. The festival originated from Hanshi Day, a memorial day for Jie Zitui. Jie Zitui died in 636 BC in the Spring and Autumn Period. He was one of many followers of Duke Wen of Jin before he became a duke. Once, during Wen’s 19 years of exile, they had no food and Jie prepared some meat soup for Wen. Wen enjoyed it a lot and wondered where Jie had obtained the soup. It turned out Jie had cut a piece of meat from his own thigh to make the soup. Wen was so moved he promised to reward him one day. However, Jie was not the type of
Custom person who sought rewards. Instead, he just wanted to help Wen to return to Jin to become king. Once Wen became duke, Jie resigned and stayed away from him. Duke Wen rewarded the people who helped him in the decades, but for some reason he forgot to reward Jie, who by then had moved into the forest with his mother. Duke Wen went to the forest, but could not find Jie. Heeding suggestions from his officials, Duke Wen ordered men to set the forest on fire to force out Jie. However, Jie died in the fire. Feeling remorseful, Duke Wen ordered three days without fire to honor Jie’s memory. The city where Jie died is still called Jiexiu.
Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper accessories, and/or libations to the ancestors. The rites have a long tradition in Asia, especially among farmers. Some people carry willow branches with them on Qingming, or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They believe that willow branches help ward off the evil spirit that wanders on Qingming.
Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano — Lettering project Directed by Prof. James Clough Produced by Tungyi Huang Fonts Title: Mrs Eaves-Bold 18/11 Content: The Sans-Regular 8/12 Caption: Mrs Eaves Roman-Regular 8/8 Grid 3 columns, 4mm gutter Source Wikipedia, several chinese festival websites