Spring Festival and Lantern Festival
Spring Festival market in Solana Mall, Beijing, 2014.
Photo by and courtesy of Sandy Wang
Gao Fenglian hangs her Door God paper cuttings at the family home in Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province, 2013.
Photo by and courtesy of Ben Feng
Photo by and courtesy of Yueyang Zhang
Chinese festive rice cake.
Photo by and courtesy of Yifei Chen
Chinese New Year festive decorations.
Photo by and courtesy of Yifei Chen
Chinese New Year couplets.
Photo by and courtesy of Yifei Chen
Paper cutting artists Gao Fenglian and Liu Jieqiong.
Photo by and courtesy of Fen Feng
Wang Wenda carves a woodblock for a print at Yangliuqing Fine Arts Press, Tianjin, 2014.
Photo by Josh Eli Cogan, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Chinese pottery tigers.
Photo by and courtesy of Yifei Chen
Lanterns on the theme “Antiquity Resung” at the 2014 lantern display in Taiwan.
Photo by and courtesy of Jian Hua
Students in Taiwan reuse plastic bottles to make lanterns. Photos by Jian Hua
Glutinous rice balls with fresh osmanthus blossoms.
Photo by Jian Hua
Spring Festival begins a new lunar year and ends fifteen days later on the evening of the Lantern Festival. Some customs are regional, while others are common throughout China. Couplets written on red paper and strings of red firecrackers adorn Chinese homes. Families enjoy elaborate feasts at round tables. Adults give children red envelopes filled with money for good luck. As more Chinese move into cities, the return to rural hometowns for Spring Festival has become the largest annual human migration in the world.
Pure Brightness/Qing Ming Festival
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
A table is set as an offering to the ancestors, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 2009.
Photo by and courtesy of Steve Wong
Burning joss paper money to honor the deceased, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 2009.
Photo by and courtesy of Steve Wong
Burning joss paper money to honor the deceased, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 2009.
Photo by and courtesy of Steve Wong
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
An offering to the ancestors, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 2009.
Photo by and courtesy of Steve Wong
Qing Ming is the only Chinese public holiday based on neither the lunar nor Gregorian calendars, but rather on solar terms. On this day, many people remember and honor the deceased by sweeping and decorating ancestral graves, burning incense and joss paper money, and making food offerings. Because it occurs just fifteen days after the Spring Equinox, picnics and kite-flying are popular ways to celebrate the holiday.
Dragon boats race in the waters near Aberdeen Harbor, Hong Kong.
Photo courtesy of Hong Kong SAR
Dragon boat competition in Hong Kong.
Courtesy of Hong Kong SAR Government
Dragon boat competition in Hong Kong.
Courtesy of Hong Kong SAR Government
Dragon boat competition in Hong Kong.
Courtesy of Hong Kong SAR Government
Making zonzi, a traditional food associated with Dragon Boat Festival celebrations.
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Making zonzi, a traditional food associated with Dragon Boat Festival celebrations.
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Making zonzi, a traditional food associated with Dragon Boat Festival celebrations.
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Making zonzi, a traditional food associated with Dragon Boat Festival celebrations.
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is Dragon Boat Festival. The festival is most commonly associated with the legend of Qu Yuan, a poet and court official who drowned himself in 278 BCE to protest imperial corruption. According to legend, grieving villagers searched for his body and threw rice in the water so that fish would eat it instead of the poet. Today people commemorate Qu Yuan through traditions such as racing ornate dragon boats, wearing perfumed sachets, and eating sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Visitors enjoy a Mid-Autumn Festival lantern display at Victoria Park, Hong Kong, 2013.
Photo courtesy of Hong Kong SAR
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
In China, moon cakes—rich pastries with sweet or savory filling—have become a synonym for Mid-Autumn Festival.
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
On the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the full moon—also called harvest moon—is at its largest. Photo courtesy of the China News Agency
Image recounting a Mid-Autumn folktale by Aurélie Beatley
On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, when family and friends gather to view the largest full moon of the year—its roundness a symbol of reunion—they are continuing a 3,000-year tradition. Families celebrate a bountiful harvest and their time together by eating moon cakes—rich pastries with sweet or savory filling—with tea and pomelos, reciting poetry, and listening to music.
