Public Holidays

There are 11 days of national public holiday per year:

The New Year's Day (31st December): 2 days

The Spring Festival (usually falling in late January or early and mid-February): 3 days

The May 1st Labor Day: 3 days;

The October 1st National Day: 3 days.

Depending on what day of the week the holidays fall, Chinese organizations will usually work the previous weekend or two in order to extend three-day holidays to one or even two weeks (for the Spring Festival).

Although the Chinese use the Gregorian calendar, it is mostly combined together with the traditional lunar calendar, since most traditional holidays are still connected with the lunar calendar. In the traditional calendar, the new moon indicates the first day of a lunar month; the full moon marks the 15th day.

Chinese Traditional Holidays

Lantern Festival – Yuanxiao Jie (15th of the 1st month)
Very popular holiday in rural areas. This holiday proclaims the end of the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) season.
Customs: lantern exhibits, lion and dragon dances, eating Tang Yuan (boiled sweet rice dumplings with various stuffings).

Qing Ming (Pure & Bright in Chinese) (5th of the 24 Solar Terms)
Originally it was a celebration of spring. Now it is day when families pay respect to the dead.
Customs: Tidying up ancestors' tombs.

Duan Wu (Dragon Boat) Festival (5th of the 5th month)
In memory of a great patriot poet Qu Yuan of the State of Chu during the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.) this holiday is connected to the story of his death: he drowned himself to protest against his emperor who gave in to the bully State of Chin. Wanting to prevent the fish from eating his body, the people of Chu State launched their boats and started throwing rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to feed the fish.
Customs: Widely known dragon boat contest and eating bamboo-leaf rice dumplings.

The Seventh Eve (7th of the seventh month)
According to one of the famous Chinese legends this story is about the Girl Weaver and A Peasant named "Lang". They can only see each other once a year, on the 7th day of the seventh month according to the lunar calendar.
Customs: it is the custom for lovers to exchange gifts and promises, girls talk to each other about their secrets and predict their future marriage life in various traditional ways. Also called Chinese Valentine’s Day

Mid-Autumn Festival (15th of the eighth month)

Second most important traditional holiday (after Spring Festival) similar to American Thanksgiving holiday.
The moon on this day is the fullest and largest to the eye.
According to the legend Hou Yi was a tyrannical ruler who won the elixir of immortality by shooting nine suns out of the sky with his bow. But his wife, knowing that the people's lives would remain miserable for all eternity if Hou Yi lived forever, drank the potion. The fluids made her lighter and she floated up into the moon where she lives in a crystal palace with a rabbit as her only companion. Even today, the Chinese like to think of the moon as the home of Chang E.
Customs: full moon represents gathering of family and friends when they eat pomelos & moon cakes made of fruit, ice cream, yogurt, pork, mushrooms, green tea, flowers, jelly etc.

Spring Festival (The Chinese New Year) (1st day of 1st month)

The biggest and most celebrated festival in China and part of east and south east Asia. The New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations are mainly family holidays. All members of the family gather for the important family meal on the evening of New Year’s Eve. If a family member is unable to attend, an empty seat will be kept to symbolize that person’s presence at the banquet.
Customs: At midnight following the banquet (with obligatory dumplings to signify prosperity and wealth), the younger members of the family bow and pay their respects to their parents and elders.

CHINESE LUNAR CALENDAR

The 24 Seasonal Division Points