Chinese Traditional Festivals

China's traditional holidays are anchored to the lunar (lunisolar) calendar, so their Gregorian dates shift from year to year. The biggest of them all is the Spring Festival -- Chinese New Year -- which kicks off on the first day of the first lunar month and ushers in two weeks of family reunions, firecrackers, and red envelopes. Two weeks later, the Lantern Festival wraps up the New Year season with glowing lanterns and sweet rice dumplings.

Come spring, Qingming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day) falls around April 4-5 each year -- one of the few holidays tied to a solar term rather than a lunar date. Families visit ancestral graves, tidy the plots, and burn incense to honor the departed.

Summer brings the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It commemorates the poet Qu Yuan with dragon boat races and sticky rice parcels called zongzi. In autumn, the Qixi Festival -- often called Chinese Valentine's Day -- celebrates the love story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl on the seventh night of the seventh month.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, on the fifteenth of the eighth lunar month, is all about mooncakes, full moons, and being with family. And as the year winds down, the Double Ninth Festival (Chongyang) on the ninth day of the ninth month honors elders and encourages hiking and chrysanthemum appreciation.

Of these, four are official public holidays in mainland China: Spring Festival, Qingming, Dragon Boat, and Mid-Autumn. There's also the Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan) on the fifteenth of the seventh month -- not a day off work, but widely observed with offerings and ceremonies for wandering spirits.