中国传统节日英文介绍

Mid-Autumn Day
（中秋节）
Mid-autumn Day is August 15th on lunar calendar. According to history records, Chinese emperor has tradition that worship the Sun in spring and worship the Moon in autumn. As August 15th is exactly the middle of autumn, so it is called Mid-Autumn Day. The traditional food of Mid-Autumn Day is Moon cake, a round baked cake with fillings in it. The round shape of moon cake represents family reunion. In the night of Mid-Autumn Day, every family has moon cake and watches the moon.
In China, the most traditional and popular Spring Festival food is dumpling, which looks like the moon with vegetables and meat mixed in it. The Chinese name of dumpling is “JIAO ZI”, ”JIAO” means ”cross”, ”ZI” is Chinese traditional time represents “24:00”, so the Chinese word “JIAO ZI” means “cross 24:00”, just the dividing point of last year and next year. So when it comes to 24:00, every family begins eating dumplings.
Tomb-
清明节） sweeping Day（清明节）
Tomb–sweep Day is an ancient festival in spring, also called Qing Ming Festival. In ancient China, the emperor worshipped heaven and earth in order to bless for harvest. People worshipped their ancestors with sacrifice and showed their missing for ancestors.
源自文库
Legend
The 2,000-plus-year-old holiday marks the star-crossed love between a cow herder Niulang and Zhinu, a weaver of clouds and the daughter of the Jade Emperor who is the Daoist ruler of heaven. The story goes that the two fell in love and got married, but their bond was met with disapproval by Wangmu, Zhinu's mother and the queen of heaven. Niulang is viewed as the star Altair and Zhinu as the star Vega. With a swift move of her hairpin, she separated the two with a river in the sky, known today as the Milky Way. But the queen took pity on them and gave them one night of the year to spend together. On Qi Xi Jie, the queen is said to send magpies to bridge the celestial [si'lestjəl] gap between the two star lovers.
Some lanterns have puzzles （灯谜）on them, called lantern puzzle, the one who gets the answer could receive small presents and be happy for his intelligence. The traditional food for Lantern Festival is rice glue ball. Rice glue ball is a flavor ball with filling in it, for example, peanut filling, sesame filling and jam filling…,the rice glue ball’s shape is just like the full moon appearing in the sky. This kind of dessert is especially welcomed by children.
Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is known as the most important festival in China. During the holiday, people go back to hometown from everywhere no matter how far the distance is. They prepare various delicious food and presents for the Spring Festival Eve. Chinese will have a happy family union in the Spring Festival Eve, they believe that’s the end day of last year and they will stay up for good luck until the first day of next year.
Now putting up red paper on the door and setting firecracker becomes Spring Festival customs and people believe doing these will bring their family safety.
Qing Ming
Du Mu（ Tang Dynasty ）
Qing Ming usually comes with rainy days
清明时节雨纷纷， 路上行人欲断魂， 借问酒家何处有， 牧童遥指杏花村.
I ask a Buffalo boy for tavern ['tævən] to release my sadness Passengers on the way are full of soreness
The Lantern Festival
（元宵节）
The Lantern Festival is January 15 on the lunar calendar. The lunar January is the first month of a year and 15th is the first day of full moon. During Lantern Festival, people go along the street to watch lanterns and children light their own small lanterns for some fun. The biggest and most beautiful lantern is the dragon lantern, which looks like a flying dragon, held by several young guys. One with a ball in hand leads the dragon to move.
Chinese traditional festivals
春节 ( 农历正月初一 ) 元宵节 ( 农历正月十五 ) 头牙 ( 农历二月初二 ) 寒食节 ( 清明节前一天 ) 清明节 ( 节气清明 ) 端午节 ( 农历五月初五 ) 七夕 ( 农历七月初七 ) 中元节 ( 农历七月十五 ) 中秋节 ( 农历八月十五 ) 重阳节 ( 农历九月九 ) 冬至 ( 节气冬至 ) 腊八节 ( 农历腊月初八 ) 尾牙 ( 农历腊月十六 ) 祭灶 ( 农历腊月廿四 ) 除夕 ( 农历十二月卅日 )
One most famous story is Chang’e flying to the moon.
Thousands of years ago, there were 9 suns in the sky. Many people felt too hot to live. A young man called Yi was brave enough and shot 8 suns to the ground and saved people. One day Yi got a potion of elixir [i‘liksə]（长生不老药） from Queen Mother and gave his wife Chang’e to keep. A man named Peng Meng knew about the elixir and wanted to get it from Chang’e. One day when Yi was out for hunting, Peng Meng went to rob the elixir. In order to protect the elixir, Chang’e swallowed all of the elixir ,and then flied to the moon.
He points to the village covered by apricot ['eiprikɔt] blossoms
Chinese Valentine’s Day
The seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is known as Qi Xi Jie or Qiqiao Jie, a traditional holiday that has been recently called China's Valentine's Day.
Spring Festival is also the happiest time for children, because they can get red envelope containing money as a gift from the elder. During the Spring Festival, any unfortunate word cannot be heard because it will make people upset and unhappy. People also make use of this holiday to visit their relatives and bring them some presents and well-wishing.