Traditional Chinese Festivals for Kids

Traditional Chinese Festivals are the life-blood of Chinese life and culture. It seems there is always some kind of celebration to look forward to! Chinese celebrations are all rich in tradition, history, great food, dazzling lights and flashy decorations!

Chinese festivals are based in the lunar calendar so the exact dates will vary from year to year in our Western Calendar.

By far, the largest and most important festival is the Spring Festival when Chinese New Year is celebrated. But there are also many others just as lively and colorful that all Chinese kids love and enjoy:

• Chinese New Year: on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month. It falls at the end of January or beginning of February as millions travel home to be with their families. It is basically two weeks jam-packed with feasts, parades, lion dances and fireworks.
  
  
• Lantern Festival: 15th day of the 1st lunar month, the Chinese New Year celebrations end on this day with the first full moon of the year.
  
  
• Tomb Sweeping Day or Qinming Festival: it falls at the beginning of April and it is the time to honor ancestors.
  
  
• Ghost Festival: it falls in the seventh lunar month and is the opposite of Qinming Festival. Here, the ghosts come out when the gates of heaven are opened for a month and visit the living...
  
  
• Dragon Boat Festival: on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, the dragon boat races are held. It is a day full of excitement with teams of rowers paddling in unison to the beat of pounding drums to the finish line...
  
  
• Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival: on the 8th full moon of the year comes the Moon Festival. On this night, the moon is at its brightest. Friends and family gather together to enjoy the moonlight and of course eat mooncakes!

In addition to the many festivals which are celebrated throughout China, there are also many local Chinese festivities that are unique to specific areas and are full of the local folklore and myths. During a trip to Hong Kong, we were lucky to be around the time of the Festival of the Bun Hills, which takes place in the island of Cheung Chau, just a ferry ride accross. It is a very colorful event on the eight day of the fourth moon, or around May.

And let's not forget about the hundreds of ways Chinese Festivals are celebrated all over the world. Take a look at this Chinese New Year Celebration in Malaysia in the little town of Kuala Kurau, where old traditions and ancient rituals are very much alive and being carried out by the older generations as well as the younger ones, making sure the folklore and heart of the celebrations are being passed on.

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