Cultural Festivals

Traditional festivals are important events to the Chinese, beginning right from childhood. Festivals such as the Chinese New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Winter Solstice are more or less evenly distributed across the four seasons. In China's traditional agricultural society, festivals served to mark the passing of time.

All Chinese festivals include common elements such as a desire for happiness and well-being, the warding off of misfortune, experiencing a connection between man and heaven, and family reunion. And, of course, festivals are an opportunity for rest and relaxation. The Chinese are hard workers, so festivals and celebrations are a welcome chance for a change of pace.

The lifestyles of the Chinese people have changed, but the importance of traditional festivals in their lives has not faded. Along with these major festivals, many other traditional festivals are observed in modern China that demonstrate the important place that tradition and longing for times past occupy in the life of the Chinese people. Besides the ethnic, geographic, historic, and linguistic ties that unite the Chinese, traditional festivals are one of the strongest bonds reinforcing the cultural identity of the Chinese.