Here are some of the Chinese holidays that you’ll experience during your time in China (and also in other countries around the world). I’ve written it in the order that you’ll likely experience it in China during study as it’s what many students are interested in.
01
Qingming, or Tomb-sweeping day is a day held for those relatives and friends that have passed away, whereby family and friends will spend the day cleaning the tomb of the deceased including paying respects to them too, often the deceased person’s favorite food and wine are taken to sacrifice to them, along with paper resembling money, this is all out of respect to the person.
You’ll often see many people light lanterns or fly kites during this time in the hope that it brings good luck to those that do. This day will be April the 2nd to April the 4th in 2017.
02
Simply a day off in the year, in respect of the international labor day, which in 2017 you’ll have April the 29th to May the 1st off due to the weekend.
03
This festival is from 28th of May to the 30th of May and the specific day off is the 30th of May, whereby originally it was used as a hygienic day where people will use herbs to dispel diseases and viruses. However nowadays the Chinese will spend this day eating Zongzi, which is a pyramid-shaped glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and is an extremely fun thing to do yourself, or you can just buy them in the supermarket!
04
Usually experienced in September, but due to the Lunar activity this year in 2017, the Mid-Autumn Festival (one day off) will be celebrated during the National Day Holiday. This day falls on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, and is the 2nd biggest festival after the Chinese New Year. Many people spend the day walking around the local parks, going to restaurants etc. and heading over to local tourist sites such as lakes and parks to eat moon-cakes and to see the moon at night, whereby this day is often called Moon Festival due to the moon being at its brightest and largest at this point. You can definitely take some really beautiful photos of the yellow moon.
05
This is the next celebrated festival whereby the majority of people will return to their hometowns depending on the layout of the off days (i.e. before a weekend for example). In 2017 National day includes 3 days off between October the 1st to October the 8th, as next year they’ll have an extra day due to the landing of the Mid-Autumn Festival day. On days that people don’t flock back to their hometowns they’ll spend the day with friends, family and strangers in their current location, for example people in Beijing often go to Tian’anmen square for the flag raising ceremony alongside viewing the vast amount of flower shows put on display in the area. Oh and just bear in mind that you’ll likely hear a lot of fireworks during this time, and everywhere will be extremely busy, no matter where you go.
06
Everyone knows what this is and in China it’s still celebrated, so you’re likely to be having 1 day off on January the 1st.
07
The biggest and most important holiday in Chinese culture, whereby people from around the world will return to their families for this special family time. It’s often called the people’s migration, where in 2015, more than 9 million people LEFT Beijing to their hometowns and being their myself I can certainly say it was a ghost town, being the only person on the streets was an extremely strange feeling in such a large and normally busy city. Chinese New Year consists of around 3 days off where in 2017 the holiday’s days will be January 27 to February the 2nd. The specific Chinese New Year Day in 2017 will be January the 28th, where many foreigners will flock to large tourist areas to see fireworks and other entertainment displays held by the remaining locals.
Chinese New Year or Spring Festival starts off with the family cleaning the house and going shopping for festival shopping, especially food! They’ll likely put up spring couplets containing the Fu character and paste it around their home and outside their door for good wishing on their family and neighbors. A large tradition at this time is to eat, which can include eating dumplings at the early morning of the new year, handing red envelopes of money to those younger than you and not working, and also many families will have firework and cracker displays outside their home.
Some good gift ideas include Liquor, cigarettes, tea, fruits, health-care products, red envelopes etc. and bad gift ideas include clocks, umbrellas, shoes, pears, sharp objects etc.
This is a great opportunity for locals and foreigners to head to the local temple fairs (or fairs held at parks) and experience many traditional activities, games, food and wonderful entertainment during the holiday period, it’s definitely something that you need to try.
Not only this but in certain cities and provinces such as Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou etc. especially in areas south of China, locals will conduct Dragon Boat Racing, definitely something which is an experience to see with your own eyes.
