National Holidays:

New Year – January 1, one day off

Spring Festival – The first day of the first lunar month, three days off

International Labor Day – May 1, one day off

National Day – October 1, seven days off

Traditional Festivals

Spring Festival -The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together.

Lantern Festival – The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the night of the first full moon after the Spring Festival. Traditionally, people eat sweet dumplings made of glutinous rice flour. This day's important activity is watching lanterns. Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the streets, attracting countless visitors. Children will hold self-made or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets. In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged. On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene.

Mid-Autumn Festival – The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which comes right in the middle of autumn. In ancient times, people would offer cakes as sacrifices to the Moon Goddess. After the ceremony, families gather together, putting food on the table, and eat pastries known as “moon cakes”. This symbolizes family reunions, and wishes for a better life.

Qingming Festival – The Qingming Festival falls on April 4-6 each year. It is a combination of sadness and happiness - a time to plant trees and fly kites, and also a time to offer sacrifices to the ancestors and sweep the tombs of the deceased.This is the most important day of sacrifice; they will not cook on this day and only cold food is served.

Dragon Boat Festival - The Dragon Boat Festival is usually celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. It has had a history of more than 2,000 years. During the Dragon boat racing, people will see racers in dragon-shaped canoes pulling the oars harmoniously and hurriedly, accompanied by rapid drums, speeding toward their destination. Zongzi is an essential food of the Dragon Boat Festival. It is made of glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or other plant leaves and tied with colored thread. Today, the fillings are more diversified, including jujube and bean paste, fresh meat, and ham and egg yolk. As a tradition, parents dress their children up with a perfume pouch. They sew little bags with colorful silk cloth, fill the bags with perfumes or herbal medicines, and string them with silk threads, which are finally hung around the neck or tied to the front of the child’s garment as an ornament. These are said to ward off evil.

Double Seventh Festival – This is celebrated on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month (usually August), and known as a traditional festival full of romance. At night when the sky is filled with stars, people can see the Milky Way spanning from the north to the south. On each bank of it is a bright star, which see each other from afar. They are Niu Lang (a kind-hearted cowherd) and Zhi Nu (a weaver maid fairy from heaven), who fell in love, but was later separated by the Queen Mother of the Western Heavens. Due to their profound loyalty and love for each other, the Queen Mother was eventually moved and allowed them to meet each year on the 7th of the 7th lunar month. The legend of the Cowhand and Weaver Maid is the Valentine's Day in China. During this time, owners of flower shops, bars and stores are full of joy as they sell more commodities for people in love.

Double Ninth Festival - The 9th day of the 9th lunar month is the traditional Chongyang Festival, or Double Ninth Festival and usually falls in October. In Chinese, the number 9 was thought to be Yang, meaning masculine or positive

and the Chinese ancestors considered it worth celebrating. During this time, people swarm to mountains, as a custom of ascending a height to avoid epidemic. People also eat double ninth gao cakes, which can have as many as nine layers, to symbolize progress in whatever endeavor they undertake. The Double Ninth Festival is also a time when chrysanthemum blooms, peopledrink chrysanthemum wine. It has also been known as the Seniors’ Day, when

all government units, organizations and streets communities organizeautumn trips each year for those who have retired from their posts. Younger generations bring their elders ones to suburban areas or buy them gifts.

Winter Solstice Festival - The Winter Solstice became a festival during the Han Dynasty, when the Han people would organize celebrating activities, and when both officials and common people would have a rest. In Northern China, people eat dumpling soup on this day; while residents of some other places eat dumplings, known to keep them from frost in the upcoming winter. In South China, the whole family gather together to have a meal made of red-bean and glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. In other places, people eat tangyuan, a stuffed small dumpling ball made of glutinous rice flour. The Winter Solstice rice dumplings is also used as sacrifices to ancestors, or gifts for friends and relatives.

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