Life in Mainland China
Chinese festivals, their dates and their foods
Most traditional festivals follow the lunar calendar, so their dates move every year. Dates to 2031, and the food each one is eaten with.
Play: Festival food matchThe traditional calendar counts months from new moon to new moon, so the 15th of any month is a full moon. Every two or three years a leap month is added to keep it in step with the seasons. Two festivals, Qingming and the Winter Solstice, follow solar terms instead and fall on nearly the same date each year. Dates here are from the Hong Kong Observatory's conversion tables.
Lunar New Year (Spring Festival)
The biggest festival of the year. People travel home for the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. Doors get red couplets and an upside-down character for luck, children get red envelopes of money, and at midnight come fireworks. In the north the family folds dumplings; a whole fish is served for 'surplus' every year; rice cake is for rising higher.
The story. The monster Nian was said to come out on New Year's Eve and was frightened away by red, by fire and by noise.
Lantern Festival
The first full moon of the year ends the New Year season. Streets and parks hang lanterns, some with riddles to guess, and families eat sweet glutinous rice balls in syrup, filled with black sesame or red bean. Their round shape stands for the family together.
Qingming (Tomb-Sweeping Day)
Families visit their ancestors' graves to sweep them, leave food and flowers, and burn paper offerings. It is also a spring outing: people fly kites and walk in the countryside. In the Yangtze delta, green rice balls coloured with mugwort or barley grass are the food of the day.
Dragon Boat Festival
Long boats with dragon heads race to drums on rivers and lakes, and families eat zongzi: sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, sweet with red bean in the north, savoury with pork and salted egg yolk in the south. Bunches of mugwort are hung on doors.
The story. The festival remembers Qu Yuan, a poet and minister who drowned himself in the Miluo River around 278 BC. People raced boats to find him and threw rice into the water so the fish would leave his body alone.
Qixi, the Double Seventh
Girls once made qiaoguo, small fried pastries pressed into shapes, and prayed to the Weaver Girl for skill with the needle. Now it is a day for couples, with flowers, chocolates and dinners for two.
The story. The Weaver Girl, a goddess, married a cowherd and was taken back to heaven. The two became the stars Vega and Altair, on either side of the Milky Way, and once a year magpies form a bridge so they can meet.
Mid-Autumn Festival
Families gather to look at the full moon, said to be the brightest of the year, and eat mooncakes: dense pastries filled with lotus seed paste, red bean or mixed nuts, often around a salted egg yolk that stands for the moon. Boxes of them are given to family, friends and colleagues for weeks before.
The story. Chang'e drank the elixir of immortality and floated to the moon, where she lives with a jade rabbit. China's lunar probes are named after her.
Double Ninth Festival
A day for climbing hills, admiring chrysanthemums and eating layered Double Ninth cake. Nine sounds like the word for 'long-lasting', so it is now also a day to honour the elderly.
Winter Solstice
The longest night. The north eats dumplings, said to keep your ears from freezing; the south eats rice balls in syrup. Some say you become a year older at the solstice.
Laba Festival
Laba porridge, of rice, beans, nuts and dried fruit, is cooked and shared, and in the north garlic is pickled in vinegar until it turns green, ready to eat with New Year dumplings. It starts the countdown to the New Year.
Festival food match
A food, a festival. And a few of the stories behind them.
Which festival is this food for?
Answer
Dragon Boat. Dragon Boat: zongzi, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Which festival is this food for?
Answer
Mid-Autumn. Mid-Autumn: round mooncakes for the full moon, often with a salted egg yolk inside.
Which festival is this food for?
Answer
Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival, the first full moon of the year (and the Winter Solstice in the south).
Which festival is this food for?
Answer
Qingming. Qingming: green rice balls coloured with mugwort, eaten in the Yangtze delta.
Which festival is this food for?
Answer
Laba. Laba, on the 8th day of the 12th lunar month: a porridge of rice, beans, nuts and dried fruit.
Which poet does the Dragon Boat Festival remember?
Answer
Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Miluo River around 278 BC.
Who lives on the moon with a jade rabbit?
Answer
Chang'e. Chang'e. China's lunar exploration programme is named after her.
Why is a whole fish served at New Year?
Answer
Its name sounds like the word for surplus. The word for fish sounds like the word for surplus, so it wishes a year with more than enough. Some leave a little uneaten for the same reason.
Qingming's date comes from which calendar?
Answer
The solar calendar. The solar calendar: it is one of the 24 solar terms, so it falls on about 4 or 5 April every year.
Which two stars are the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl?
Answer
Altair and Vega. Altair and Vega, either side of the Milky Way; magpies make them a bridge on the 7th day of the 7th month.