IMPORTANT CHINESE CELEBRATIONS

There are many celebrations that are an important part of Chinese culture, and in Australia we can see this with many different festivals held by Chinese people. Some of these celebrations include Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Pure Brightness Day and the Dragon Boat Festival.


Chinese New Year:

Chinese New Year is the most important celebration in the Chinese calendar and also the longest. The celebrations last for 15 days, starting on the first day of the Chinese calendar, which is usually in February.

As part of Chinese New Year, people wear red clothes, give children 'lucky money' in red envelopes and set off firecrackers. To Chinese people, red represents fire, and they believe fire drives away bad luck. Family members gather at each other's homes for special meals.
Chinese New Year ends with the lantern festival.

Above: Some pictures of Chinese New Year Celebrations.

The Lantern Festival:

The Lantern Festival falls on the night of the first full moon after the Spring Festival. During the lantern festival, people hang multi-coloured decorated lanterns in temples and carry lanterns to an evening parade under the full moon. It is also a tradition that people eat sweet dumplings during this festival, because Chinese people believe that sweet dumplings represent reunion. Sometimes people have parties in the evening where people guess riddles written on lanterns.
The dragon dance is usually the highlight of the lantern festival. The Chinese people make a huge dragon, which can be over 30 metres long, from materials such as silk, paper and bamboo.


Above: Some pictures of the Lantern Festival.