Folklore and Legends, continued
Chinese Festivals
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Spring Festival
The most important traditional festival is the Spring Festival (Chun Jie), the Chinese New Year in the lunar calendar. Preparation begins weeks ahead of time and involves a lot of cleaning, cooking, and other special preparations. Cleaning is important in order to sweep away any bad luck or evil spirits from the old year. One must NOT sweep during the New Year festival because one might sweep away the good luck for the new year. Many people don’t cook for the first five days so lots and lots of food must be prepared including JiaoZi (Chinese Dumplings).
It’s an exciting, fun festival. The festive dinner on New Year’s Eve is usually a family reunion and often includes chicken (ji in Chinese, which sounds much like the word meaning "auspiciousness") and fish (yu in Chinese, which sounds much like the word that means "wealth" and "surplus").
Fireworks are an important part of the celebration since the noise chases away evil spirits – besides being lots of fun. Red is the color meaning "joy" and "luck" so red ribbons and flags are waved. (Sometimes people decorate their doors and window frames with red paper or paint.) Children often are given red packets with money which bring luck to the giver and to the receiver.
There are many other customs, too, and each family usually develops some of its own! My Chinese feline friend has a custom she created herself. When the relatives come over for New Year Eve dinner, they pile all their coats on a bed, and this kitty burrows down deep and sleeps the evening away. When they try to collect their coats to go home, kitty jumps up and hisses, hisses, hisses! The family says she’s scaring away bad luck! She’s a furry brave, good kitty!
Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival (Yuen Siu ) is held on the night of the first full moon of the lunar year and serves as the ending of the New Year festivities. Beautiful lanterns made of many different materials and presenting many themes can be seen everywhere. Some are made to look like butterflies, others are shaped like rabbits, dragonflies, birds, fruit, or the animal sign of the year. Some cities in China have huge lantern fairs. Ice lanterns are special features in some places and may include delicately carved ice crystal houses, bridges, and gardens decorated with colorful lights that run for miles.
It's a very old festival which many believe is of Taoist origins. Naturally, there are many stories to explain how it began. One of them involves the Jade Emperor.
Once upon a time long, long ago, the Jade Emperor got very angry with the people living in a certain part of China because they killed his prized goose. He was furious and declared that he would set fire to the land and burn all the people, animals, and plants on the night of the fifteenth day of the lunar year. A wise old woman learned of this and told the people to light lots of lanterns on the night of the fifteenth -- at home, on the streets, and in the fields. When the appointed evening came, the Jade Emperor looked down from heaven and saw the whole region lit up. He mistook the brightness for a big fire and thought that the death of his prized goose had been avenged. To commemorate their good fortune, people have hung lanterns on the night of the first full moon every year since.
One of the special foods for the Lantern Festival is Yuen Siu, a kind of Chinese dumpling made with glutinous rice flour. They are round and can be made with tasty fillings of different flavors, mostly sweet, and boiled or deep fried. Some are made plain and cooked in a soup with vegetables, meat, and shrimp. The round shape is a symbol of wholeness and unity.
Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is sometimes referred to as the "Double Fifth Festival" because it occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar -- around mid-summer. On this day the sun shines directly overhead at noon; one may stand on one's own shadow. It is, along with the Spring Festival (New Year) and the Autumn Moon Festival, one of the three most important festivals of the calendar year. Like the other festivals, there is a legend associated with its origin and a special dumpling and other foods are eaten.
The story tells of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese scholar-statesman who served the King of Chu during the Warring States period. A patriotic poet, he threw himself into the Miluo River when he saw his state annexed by the Qin State.
When the people learned about this, they jumped into their boats and rushed out to search for his body. When they couldn't find his body, they made many zongzi (a kind of dumpling)and threw them into the river so that the creatures in the river would not touch him. This became a traditional food for this day to remember the poet.
Since then, people started to commemorate Qu Yuan through dragon boat races, eating zongzi and other activities, on the anniversary of his death, the fifth of the fifth month.
Zongzi is the most popular food for the festival. Zongzi is a special kind of dumpling/rice cake. It is usually made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and stuffed with dates, mashed red beans with sugared osmanthus, or marinated meat, wrapped in a particular kind of reed leaves, triangular in shape, steamed or boiled. Fresh bamboo leaves are the best for the wrapping since the taste and smell of the fresh bamboo leaves is part of zongzi.
The way of celebrating can be very different from region to region. In Northeast China, rural people hang artemisia along the eaves of their houses and boil and eat a lot of eggs—goose eggs, duck eggs and chicken eggs, while in Southern China where there are rivers and lakes, dragon boat races are held and zongzi is eaten. Teams of dragon boats, similar to long canoes, train for weeks for the contests that mark this festival, not only in China but in other countries with large Chinese populations.
Moon Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival is perhaps the second most important traditional festival in China. It is on the fifteenth day of the eighth month when the moon is said to look the largest, roundest, and brightest of the year. Chinese people around the world eat moon cakes while gazing at the moon and singing moon poems.
In Chinese, things that resemble wholeness and completeness take the word yuan, which means round, full, or complete. As the shape of the moon symbolizes the completeness and perfection, the festival is characterized by reunion of the family. It's also a special holiday for lovers. Even when separated on that day, they can look at the moon at the same time and think of each other.
The festival takes place shortly after the harvest so meals are abundant and the particular delicacy is the Moon Cake, a round-shaped cake filled with nuts, dried fruits, preserved flowers like roses, sweet-scented osmanthus, sesame and/or marinated beef or salted pork. After dark, people like to sit outside with a pot of jasmine tea and plates of different flavored moon cakes, candies and nuts, while chatting and enjoying the clear evening sky with the bright moon.
If you look carefully, you might see Chang Er dancing on the moon. Legend says that one day, ten suns suddenly appeared in the sky and began to parch the crops. The emperor ordered Hou Yih, a skilled archer, to shoot nine of the suns out of the sky.
This feat greatly impressed the Goddess of the Western Heaven who rewarded him with a pill that would give immortality. Hou's wife, a beautiful woman named Chang Er discovered the hidden pill and swallowed it. She immediately found herself airborne, bound for eternal banishment on the moon where her divine beauty enhanced the brilliance of the moon with her own radiance. Now, Chinese people gather each Moon Festival to admire her.
More legends and customs
Dragons and Monsters:
|Dragon Toes|
|Nian|
Chinese Festivals:
|Spring Festival (New Year)|
|Lantern Festival|
|Moon Festival|
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Last updated on 23 January 2001.