Spring Festival

The Spring Festival has become the foremost of all traditional festivals for the Chinese people. It is celebrated on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month. Chinese people have about ten days’ celebration at that time. It’s a day for family reunion like Christmas in western countries. Everyone, young and old, rich and poor, looks forward to celebrating the noisiest, most joyous and longest festival of the year.
Right before the festival sets in, people are already busy grocery shopping, making new clothes, preparing the family reunion banquet and pasting New Year couplets on gateposts or door panels. New Year couplets are written on strips of red paper, composed of two sentences which match each other in sound and sense to express people’s cherished wishes. A lot of dining and wining takes place during the festival, and every family make and eat New Year’s cakes (made of glutinous rice flour), dumplings and sweet dumplings. Long strings of firecrackers are let off to liven up the atmosphere. On New Year’s Eve, people often stay up late or all night to see the old year out and the New Year in, busy at all kinds of activities welcoming the New Year. In the morning, people put on their new clothes and shoes, visit each other and exchange New Year’s greetings.

2. Lantern Festival

The 15th day of the 1st lunar month is the Chinese Lantern Festival, also called Yuan Xiao Festival because the first lunar month is called yuan-month and in the ancient times people called night Xiao. The 15th day is the first night to see a full moon. According to the Chinese tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve the puzzles on the lanterns and eat yuanxiao (glutinous rice ball) and get all their families united in the joyful atmosphere. Today, the displaying of lanterns is still a big event on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month throughout China. People enjoy the brightly lit night. During the Lantern Festival, the park is literally an ocean of lanterns! Many new designs attract countless visitors. It is quite an impressive sight! There are many different beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival. But one thing for sure is that it has something to do with religious worship.

3. Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Fifth Moon Festival, is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. It is noted for its dragon-boat races, especially in the southern provinces, where there are many rivers and lakes. Brightly painted and decorated boats fill specially chosen rivers and lakes for annual summer races. Teams of men and women, in bright colored costumes, compete ferociously, rowing their long, thin, boats to the sound of drums and gongs and the cheering crowds.
This is also a time when Chinese people eat “Zong Zi”, a tasty glutinous rice dumpling with various fillings. The festival dates back at least 2,000 years. Most Chinese people claim that the origins of the festival lay in the legend of Qu Yuan, a great poet in the third century B.C. Qu Yuan was utterly devoted to his king and his country. He tried to advise the king on how to keep peace with neighboring states, but his advice was rejected and he was banished from the kingdom. Later the kingdom fell as a result of war, and when Qu Yuan learned of the news, he jumped into a river in despair. People got in their boats and raced to save him, but they found nothing. To stop the fish from eating Qu’s body, people quickly wrapped rice with reed leaves and threw these “little bags” (Zong Zi) into the river as food for the fish.

4. Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. In the Western calendar, the day of the festival usually occurs sometime between the second week of September and the second week of October. It is a day for family reunion as symbolized by the full moon and the moon cake. This day is also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain has been harvested by this time and food is abundant. It is believed that the Mid-Autumn Festival originated more than 2,000 years ago and in the old days the festival was devoted to praying to the gods. The festival revolves around the moon and there are many traditional stories concerning the moon.
Whenever the festival sets in, people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon. They will look up at the bright full silver moon, tasting moon cakes and drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them. They also send round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion.

5. Christmas

Christmas Day, December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian religion, is the biggest and best-loved holiday in the United States. It is now probably the most widely celebrated religious occasion in the West. Christmas is the time when the year comes to its end and people use the time to relax themselves and to welcome the New Year.
During Christmas season, Western people decorate their houses, buy presents, have parties and generally enjoy themselves. Gifts are given amongst family and friends and cards wishing “Seasonal Greetings” sent between just about everyone. On Christmas Eve, Children will put a long stocking near their bed hoping that Santa Claus will come and put presents in the stockings. Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, is said to squeeze his way down chimneys across the world and deliver presents to any children that have behaved well over the last year. Another important custom of the festival is the Christmas tree. Western people buy and decorate a Christmas tree, put it in the living room and on the tree they’ll hang many small cards, gifts, candies along with small colored balls and stars. They’ll pile up many boxes of presents under the tree. On the door they’ll hang a mistletoe garland. The streets are full of festival atmosphere because many shop windows are decorated with Christmas trees, jingle bells and pictures of Santa Claus.

6. Easter

Easter today is what is known as a "moveable feast" --- the exact date varies from year to year. It falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following March 21. It is originally the day to commemorate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. But now for most people, Easter is just a spring holiday, while for the children, it means, more than anything else, Easter eggs or chocolate eggs, said to be delivered by the Easter Bunny.
The Easter Bunny has become an integral part of the American Easter tradition. It’s usually considered to be a benevolent, vaguely supernatural creature that brings gifts to good boys and girls. Today these gifts are usually in the form of chocolate Easter eggs. Chocolate Easter eggs are displayed in confectioners' shops as soon as Christmas is over. The smallest and simplest are inexpensive enough for children to buy with pocket money. As Easter approaches, more elaborate eggs than these fill the sweetshop windows. They are accompanied by all sorts of small presents designed to appeal to children. Lucky children may receive several of these as presents from friends or relations. Easter eggs are meant to give enjoyment. They are pretty and decorative; they signal good wishes and shared happiness in the changing seasons.
The new clothes worn on Easter Sunday are a symbol of new life. On Easter Sunday morning, the breakfast eggs are boiled in several pans in some families, each containing a different vegetable dye, so that when they are served the shells are no longer white or pale brown in color, but yellow or pink, blue or green. The dyes do not penetrate the shell of course.

7. Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a very important cultural festival in the United States. It takes place on the last Thursday of November and its purpose, as its name suggests, is to give thanks for all that people have. The earliest observance of Thanksgiving was held by the Mayflower pilgrims. After having barely survived a harsh winter and following an abundant harvest, they decided to hold a feast to give thanks. They invited 91 local Indians to whom they felt indebted for assisting their survival in that first bleak year. That first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days with the people enthusiastically participating.
Today Thanksgiving Day is a legal holiday with most government and private employees being given the day off. Some companies and most schools also shut down the following Friday. The United States of America, for most purposes, observes Thanksgiving Day. The festival is a chance for family to get together and enjoy the traditional food such as roast turkey and pumpkin pie that no Thanksgiving could do without.

8. Halloween

Halloween means Hallows' Evening. It is the evening before All Hallows' Day (now called All Saints' Day), a Christian holiday, celebrated on the 1st of November. It is an important festival in much of the Western world, especially the USA and Ireland.
History traces Halloween back to the ancient religion of the Celtics. Celts thought the division between the natural world and the supernatural world became very thin and all time and space was abruptly suspended on October 31st, and then the spirits of the died would come back and move freely looking for living bodies to possess. Afraid of evil spirits, the living dressed up in freaky, scary costumes and made a big ruckus around the neighborhood hoping that the ghosts would leave in peace before midnight of the new year. Some would also go from house to house, begging for "soul cakes", square pieces of bread with currants. In return they promised to pray for dead members of the donors' families. That's the origin of “Trick or Treat”. Over time the custom changed and the town’s children became the beggars. They go from house to house, ringing doorbells and when the doors open, they shout “Trick or Treat”, which means “If you don’t give me a treat, I’ll play a trick on you!” Most adults enjoy seeing the children, especially the tiny ones, and they are ready with plenty of candies, cookies and fruit.
Most people today treat Halloween as simply an excuse for a great party: they dress in fancy costumes, eat candy and have scary fun!

9. St. Valentine’s Day

Valentine's Day, February 14th, is one of the most popular festivals of the Western calendar. There are various legends surrounding St. Valentine. One of the most popular says that he was a priest at the time of the Emperor Claudius. When Claudius forbade marriage, Valentine married couples in secret. He was eventually discovered and beheaded.
St. Valentine's Day is now a time for romance, for lovers everywhere to declare their affection. Many people buy cards, gifts, flowers or candy for their loved one --- chocolate is a great favorite, as are roses. Most people send “valentines,” a greeting card named after the notes that St. Valentine received in jail. Valentines can be sentimental, romantic and heartfelt. They can be funny and friendly. Americans of all ages love to send and receive valentines. Handmade valentines created by cutting hearts out of colored paper, show that a lot of thought was put into making them personal. Valentines can be heart-shaped, or have hearts, the symbol of love, on them. In elementary schools children make valentines for their classmates and put them in a large decorated box, similar to a mailbox. On February 14, the teacher opens the box and distributes the valentines to each student. After the students read their valentines they have a small party with refreshments.
For teenagers and adults, major newspapers throughout the country have a Valentine's Day offer. Anyone can send in a message, for a small fee of course, destined for a would-be sweetheart, a good friend, an acquaintance or even a spouse of fifty years. The message is printed in a special section of the newspaper on February 14.

10. April Fool’s Day

The 1st of April is a special day, on which practical jokes may be played without punishment. With no religious content this festival is purely about fun, at other people’s expense. The origin of the custom is uncertain, but it seems to have come about in France as a result of the change in 1582. In 16th-century France, the start of the new year was observed on April 1st. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night. Then in 1582, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January 1st. There were some people, however, who hadn’t heard or didn’t believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1st. Others played tricks on them and called them “April Fools”. Today Americans play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on the same day. April 1st now looks like it will continue to be a day on which we fools must be wary!