Chinese Festivals
The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)
Just by the name, you can imaging the festival is taking place during the middle of Autumn. It is on the 15th of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It is the second most important Chinese traditional festival just after the Chinese New Year and celebrated by all Han Chinese and most of the minorities in the country, as well as Japanese, South Koreans, Vietnamese and some Thailand families.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the moon festival, due to its very origin comes from moon worship. Through over 3000 years of evolution, the rather serious worshipping ritual practised by royal emperors becomes a common people’s festival. People gather together on this day, sitting outside in the garden, drinking tea or alcohol, eating moon cakes and fruits, admiring the bright full moon and composing or reciting poems about the moon. Since the time of the festival is usually just after harvest, it is also an occasion for farmers and peasants to rest and celebrate their harvest.
The round shape of the moon is called “yuan” (圆) in Chinese, and it is associated with the word “tuan yuan” (团圆), which means reunion. So the festival is also an important family and friends reunion festival. For those ones who could not make it back home for the reunion, they share their nostalgia with the moon that their family will be watching that night.
The Double-Ninth Day (九九重阳节)
Each ninth day of the ninth month in Chinese lunar calendar is the Double-Ninth Day, another traditional festival of China. Having undergone a history of more than 2,000 years, the Double-Ninth Day was formally set down as a folk festival in the Tang Dynasty and both Emperors and civilians should celebrate the festival.
As time goes by, the Double-Ninth Day has gradually formed the celebrating conventions of going on a journey, ascending height, picking cornel branch, appreciating chrysanthemum, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and eating Double-Nine cake. As the figure “9″ also stands for longevity and health in the traditional concept of Han people, the Chinese government set September 9 in the lunar calendar as “the Elder’s Day” in 1989. Now, the Double-Ninth Day has been enlisted as Intangible Cultural Heritage of China.
