Archive for the ‘Beijing Travel’ Category
The origins of the Lantern Festival always held on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the first full moon after the Spring Festival, stretch back some 2,000 years or more. There are several different stories about how the festival got started and of its meaning. For most people, the origins do not matter... ;
On New Year’s Eve evening, with the family gathered together, the feasting begins. Among the most popular dishes, especially in North China, are jiaozi, and especially in South China, niangao. After dinner, the family sits up playing cards and board games, watching TV, chatting, and other wise having a... ;
Toward the end of the lunar year, people also send out New Year’s greeting cards, a custom that dates back several hundred years. Traditionally the cards were red, to symbolize happiness, but today 3D pop-up cards are also available as are high-tech cards with chips that play a little tune when the... ;
Since the Spring Festival celebrates the beginning of the New Year, it is very much about renewal: completing the business of the old year, re-cementing relationships with family, friends, and associates, and getting everything arranged to start the New Year with a clean slate.
Initial preparations begin a... ;
To complicate matters, neither the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches nor the 24 nodes were connected with the lunar calendar: the former made up a purely mathematical cycle and had no direct connection with the movement of sun and moon, while the latter were based on a solar reckoning. To make things even... ;
According to the Gregorian calendar, the beginning date of the Spring Festival jumps around from year to year. This is because the lunar contains 12 months but only 354 days, and so is out of sync with the 365-day Gregorian calendar. To complicate matters, both the Gregorian and the lunar calendars need to... ;
The biggest, longest, and most important holiday by far is the Spring Festival. This is a time for the entire nation to put on its best clothes, eat the best foods, hand out gifts, set off firecrackers (where still permitted), pay calls on friends and neighbors, drink and play games, watch TV specials, and... ;
Before the twentieth century, although people did not enjoy a regular weekly day (or days) off from work nor did they have annual paid vacations both are modern inventions nonetheless, life was normally far from unremitting drudgery. In the first place, people traveled: in search of work or for business, on... ;
In September 1999 the government extended both the National Day holiday and Labor Day to three days each. This, according to the official announcement, was to satisfy the growing need for a better material and cultural life. In the year 2000, May Day fell on a Monday and, with the encouragement of the... ;
Like people elsewhere in the world, the Chinese celebrate holidays and festivals as occasions to remember a shared past and to reaffirm traditions as well as to enjoy themselves. Through celebration year after year, holidays create and sustain a sense of community. When the entire nation shares in the same... ;
