Part One: Chinese Traditional Festivals:
1. The Mid - Autumn Festival - Zhong Qiu Jie - 中秋节
The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important traditional festival in China (the most important one is Chinese New Year). Let's see how Chinese people to celebrate this traditional festival?
1 ) Eating Moon cakes — This is a very important tradition for Chinese people to do on that day. ( chi yue bing - 吃月饼)
2 ) Watching the Moon — The full moon is the symbol for a family reunion. Families suppose to watch the full moon in their yard and eat moon cakes together. (shang yue - 赏月)
3 ) Making Colorful Lanterns — Usually Children will make their own favorite Colorful lanterns to celebrate this festival. (zhi zuo deng long - 制做灯笼)
4 ) Family Dinner Together — Since the Mid-Autumn Festival represents the reunion of families, Chinese people will have dinner together on that night. ( chi tuan yuan fan - 吃团圆饭)
Have you eaten any moon cakes today?
- Jin tian ni chi yue bing le ma ?
- 今天你吃月饼了吗?
2. Chinese New Year - Spring Festival - chun jie - 春节
Chinese New Year ( the spring festival ) is the most important festival in China. The whole country China will celebrate this festival for about 2 weeks.
This year is the year of the Rooster - begins on Saturday January 28 and lasts until February 15th, 2018.
The new year, also known as the Spring Festival, is marked by the lunisolar Chinese calendar, so the date changes from year to year.
People walk under a Chinese Lantern display during a Chinese New Year celebration .
The festivities usually start the day before the New Year and continue until the Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the new year.
Each Chinese New Year is characterised by one of 12 animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 blocks (or houses) just like its western counterpart, but with the major difference being that each house has a time-length of one year instead of one month.
This year it's the Year of the Rooster, the tenth animal in the cycle. The next Year of the Rooster will be in 2029.
Let's learn some Chinese New Year famous sayings:
1. Happy New Year!
- xin nian hao !
- 新年好!
2. wish you are healthy !
- zhu ni shen ti jian kang!
- 祝你身体健康!
3. Wish you good luck!
- zhu ni wan shi ru yi!
- 祝你万事如意!
3. Chinese Lantern Festival - yuan xiao jie - 元宵节
Chinese red lanterns have a long history, and they have become a well-known symbol of China Towns worldwide. They started out as a practicality and evolved into elaborate status symbols, literally riddled with mystery.
The most common Chinese lanterns are red, oval shape, and decorated with red or golden tassels, but they come in many forms; another usual style is a square lantern.
The materials for making a lantern vary: bamboo, wood, rattan, or steel wire for the frame; paper or silk for the shade; and for decoration Chinese calligraphy, painting, paper cutting, and embroidery.
On Chinese Lantern Festival, people in China will eat a traditional food called - Yuan Xiao. There are a lot of lantern shows all around every city in China. Kids are really enjoy guess lantern puzzles on the lanterns. This is a fun festival.
4. Dragon Boat Festival - duan wu jie - 端午节
Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duan Wu Jie or Tuen Ng Festival, is a traditional holiday observed annually over 2,000 years in China to commemorate Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), an ancient Chinese patriotic poet. Originated from south China, Dragon Boat Festival enjoys higher popularity in southern areas, such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian Provinces. People usually eat Zongzi and have a Dragon Boat Race to celebrate this festival.