There are many traditional festivals in China each year, and the Chinese celebrate their festivals in different ways. Most of the festivals are related to some story which usually sings the praises of a historical figure, describes a beautiful legend or wishes a good harvest and happiness. All the traditional festivals are based on the Chinese lunar calendar which has about 20 to 30 days difference from the international calendar. You will be fortunate if you come to China during one of these festivals, when you will get a glimpse of the ancient culture, values and customs of the Chinese nation through the celebration of these Chinese traditional festivals.

Spring Festival
This is the Chinese New Year on the first day of the first month in the lunar calendar, usually falling in early February. It is the most important festival in China and in other parts of the world where there are Chinese communities. Like Christmas Day in the West, this festival is a family celebration when the whole family get together. Usually people try to Pay off all debts before the festival. A few days before, people pay sacrifices to the Earth God who goes up to the heaven to report to the Jade Emperor about the behaviour of each family. On New Year's Eve, the whole family sit around tables to have a grand feast and let off fireworks. (Nowadays fireworks are forbidden in many large cities to prevent fire and injury.) In the first few days of the New Year, people visit each other to bring their good wishes for the new year, either for good health or good fortune. In the past, people stopped doing any housework, including cooking, for the first 15 days until the Lantern Festival. So people had to eat things prepared in advance. This custom has changed now.

Lantern Festival
On the 15th day of the 1st month of the lunar calendar, it normally falls at the end of February, when people traditionally come out to look at various lanterns in the streets or parks and eat round, sweet rice-flour dumplings. 

Qingming Festival
Normally this falls on April 5, and is a festival to remember the dead, when people traditionally go to visit the tombs of their ancestors. On that day, if you are in Beijing, you will see school children lay wreaths of flowers before the monument in Tian'anmen Square in memory of martyrs who died in the wars. 

Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival, the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, is usually in June in the Gregorian calendar. It is a commemoration of Qu Yuan (340-278 BC, who was minister of the State of Chu and one of China's earliest poets. Dragon boat racing and Zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or other plant leaves and tied with colored thread) are musts for the festival. Traditionally people rowed dragon boats on the river and dropped rice dumplings into the water to feed the fishes in the hope that Qu Yuan would not be eaten by the fishes. 

Double Seventh Festival
The Double Seventh Festival, on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, is a traditional festival full of romance, so-called Chinese Valentine's Day. It often goes into August in the Gregorian calendar.

Mid-Autumn Festival
Also known as Moon Festival, it falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually in October in Gregorian calendar. At this festival, families gather together to have a feast and eat moon cakes while watching the full moon in the sky. The moon cake symbolises family reunion because of its round shape. If you come to China at this festival, you will be treated well by your hotel as a member of their big 'hotel family'. The moon cakes, made of wheat flour with sweet fillings, are very tasty if you have a sweet tooth. 

Double-nine Festival
This is a festival for old people on the 9th day of the 9th month in lunar calendar which usually falls in October. Younger generations will bring elder ones to suburban areas for a autumn trip, or send gifts to them on this day. Enjoying the flourishing chrysanthemum is also a key activity on this festival.

Winter Solstice Festival 
Winter Solstice is the earliest of the 24 seasonal division points. The time will be each December 22 or 23 according to the Gregorian calendar. In some parts of Northern China, people eat dumpling soup on this day; while residents of some other places eat dumplings, saying doing so will keep them from frost in the upcoming winter. But in parts of South China, the whole family will get together to have a meal made of red-bean and glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and other evil things.