Traditional festivals

The Chinese traditional festivals follow a unique lunar - calendar system, which differs from the Gregorian Calendar.

Spring Festival (the first day of the first lunar month)
The Spring Festival is also known as the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year. To Chinese people, the Spring Festival is the most important festive occasion of all, comparable to Christmas Day in the west. The Spring Festival is considered to be the real start of the New Year. It symbolizes the arrival of spring and a fresh start. Members of a family, no matter where they are, will come home on the eve of the Lunar New Year and get together around the dinner table to enjoy the richest last meal of the year, the 'family reunion dinner'. It is also an occasion on which people visit friends and relatives giving greetings of the new year, and giving gifts. As with the National Day and May Day, there is a three- day statutory holiday, made into a week long holiday by swapping the two weekends before and after the Spring Festival. Some businesses may allow longer holidays for their staff depending on circumstances. Marketers at this time often target gift-giving requirements.

Lantern Festival (15th day of the first lunar month)
Also known as Yuanxiao Festival. It is commonly celebrated, although the type of celebration varies from place to place. Lantern exhibits, lion and dragon dances and flower fairs are just some examples. Instead of the dumplings eaten during Spring Festival, people typically eat Yuan Xiao in Northern China, or Tang Yuan in the south “ ball-shaped sticky rice dumplings with a delicious stuffing . The round shape of Yuan Xiao or Tang Yuan is a symbol of perfection and of the union of family members. The Spring Festival atmosphere does not really come to an end until this day.

Qing Ming Festival (fifth day of the fourth lunar month)
A day when families commemorate their departed members or ancestors as part of the Chinese filial custom. Cleaning up tombs and presenting tributes (normally fruit and the favourite food of the departed) are the key events of the day.

Duan Wu (Dragon Boat) Festival (fifth day of the fifth lunar month)
This festival commemorates a great patriotic poet, Qu Yuan (340 “278 BC), who drowned himself in protest at the corrupt emperor who sent him into exile and eventually caused the perdition of the State of Chu, Qu Yuan's beloved country. People who adored Qu Yuan went out on the boat in search of his body and threw Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves ) into the river in an attempt to protect his body from being eaten by fish. In some places there is a dragon boat contest to commemorate the day and Zongzi is eaten.

Mid-Autumn Festival (15th day of the eighth lunar month)
The mid-autumn festival takes place at a time when the moon is at its fullest. There are several fairy tales about the origin of the festival. People now celebrate the day as a time for family reunion. Those who cannot get together on the day will meet by looking at the moon. Eating moon cake and appreciating the roundness and clarity of the moon is the main event of the festival. Again, the round shape of moon cake indicates perfection and family union. Moon cakes are frequently given as presents during the festival: the gift of moon cake has been a custom for thousands of years .