Chinese Folk Culture -- Festivals and Customs

Author: Hongyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: Traditional Chinese festivals are categorized into agricultural festivals, sacrificial festivals, commemorative festivals, celebratory festivals, and social/recreational festivals. They are specifically divided into events such as the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Double Ninth Festival, among others. This book introduces only some of the major traditional festivals of the Han ethnic group. China is a multi-ethnic country, and each ethnic group has its own cultural customs. The numerous ethnic festivals represent a cultural treasure trove waiting to be explored. Traditional festivals possess continuity, with both a long historical origin and a dynamic evolution. They develop while maintaining continuity. Traditional festivals are categorized into agricultural festivals, sacrificial festivals, commemorative festivals, celebratory festivals, and social/recreational festivals. The origins of traditional festivals can be attributed to several categories: first, they originate from primitive sacrificial rituals, such as the Spring Festival offering to the Kitchen God, the Qingming Festival honoring ancestors, the Dragon Boat Festival commemorating dragons and Qu Yuan, and so on. Second, they originate from religious activities. Third, they stem from agricultural practices, such as the Qingming Festival, the Ten Days Festival, and the Winter Solstice. Fourth, they derive from community-based recreational activities, such as dragon boat racing during the Dragon Boat Festival, which was an existing community recreational activity as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty. Fifth, they originate from significant historical events. The purpose of this book is to provide readers with an understanding of these festivals, enabling the inheritance and promotion of our traditional culture.