Traditional Chinese festivals are more than dates on a calendar. They weave together astronomy, mythology, ancestor worship, and folk customs into a living cultural system. For anyone interested in Chinese culture, understanding the major traditional Chinese festivals is essential: they show how people in China have long viewed time, family, nature, and the divine.
This guide brings together the most important traditional Chinese festivals, along with several key ethnic minority celebrations. For each festival, you’ll find its date, typical customs, cultural origins, and a representative classical poem where relevant.
I. Ten Major Traditional Chinese Festivals
1、Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)
Date: Lunar January 1
Customs: Families clean and decorate their homes, put up spring couplets and paper cuttings, set off firecrackers, wear new clothes, visit relatives, hand out red envelopes, and share a large reunion dinner featuring dumplings, rice cakes, or sweet glutinous rice balls.
Origins: Spring Festival can be traced back to the Shang dynasty, when people held grand rituals to worship deities and ancestors at the turn of the year. In early times, the new year was determined by observing the stars, especially the position of the Big Dipper. For an agricultural society, this moment of renewal was crucial. Today, the Spring Festival officially begins on lunar New Year’s Day, but the festive season traditionally continues through the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day.
Representative Poem: Wang Anshi, “New Year’s Day”.
2、Lantern Festival
Date: Lunar January 15
Customs: Appreciating lantern displays, guessing lantern riddles, watching dragon and lion dances, and eating sweet glutinous rice balls (tangyuan).
Origins: The Lantern Festival grew out of early folk practices of lighting lamps to pray for blessings. When Buddhism spread into China during the Western Han dynasty, its tradition of lighting lamps on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month merged with local customs.
Representative Poem: Ouyang Xiu, “Lantern Night”.
3、Dragon Raising Its Head (Longtaitou Festival)
Date: Lunar February 2
Customs: Getting a “dragon haircut,” eating long noodles, and performing dragon dances.
Origins: Longtaitou reflects ancient seasonal observations. Around this time, yang energy rises, spring thunder begins, rainfall increases, and crops start to grow. Farmers believed that the Dragon—symbol of rain—“raises its head” on this day.
Saying: “On the second of the second month, the Dragon raises its head.”
4、Qingming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day)
Date: Around April 5
Customs: Tomb-sweeping, spring outings, swinging, and flying kites.
Origins: Qingming is both a solar term and one of the oldest traditional Chinese festivals. It blends ancestor worship with seasonal rituals that honor nature’s renewal.
Representative Poem: Du Mu, “Qingming”.
5、Dragon Boat Festival
Date: Lunar May 5
Customs: Dragon boat races, eating sticky rice dumplings, hanging mugwort and calamus, and drinking realgar wine.
Origins: This festival began with ancient dragon worship and was later linked to the poet Qu Yuan. Other symbolic figures such as Wu Zixu and Cao E are honored in some regions.
Representative Poem: Wen Xiu, “Dragon Boat Festival”.
6、Qixi Festival (Double Seventh Festival)
Date: Lunar July 7
Customs: Praying for skillfulness, offering fruits to the Weaver Girl, and sharing pastries.
Origins: Qixi originates from ancient star worship and became defined by the love story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.
Representative Poem: Qin Guan, “Immortal at the Magpie Bridge”.
7、Mid-Autumn Festival
Date: Lunar August 15
Customs: Moon-gazing, eating mooncakes, offering rituals to the moon, and carrying lanterns.
Origins: The festival grew from ancient moon-worship rituals. The full moon symbolized reunion and harvest in agricultural society.
Representative Poem: Su Shi, “Prelude to Water Melody”.
8、Double Ninth Festival (Chongyang Festival)
Date: Lunar September 9
Customs: Climbing heights, admiring chrysanthemums, wearing dogwood sprigs, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and eating Double Ninth cakes.
Origins: The festival began as autumn harvest worship and developed through the Han and Tang periods into a major ancestral festival.
Representative Poem: Wang Wei, “Remembering My Brothers on the Ninth Day”.
9、Winter Solstice (Dongzhi)
Date: December 21–23
Customs: Eating dumplings in northern China, eating tangyuan in southern China, and holding ancestral banquets.
Origins: Dongzhi is both a major solar term and a traditional Chinese festival, marking the turning point of winter.
10、Lunar New Year’s Eve (Chuxi)
Date: Lunar December 29 or 30
Customs: Reunion dinner, staying up late, putting up couplets, and lighting firecrackers.
Origins: Chuxi marks the last night of the old year—a time to sweep away the old and welcome the new.
Representative Poem: Wen Tianxiang, “New Year’s Eve”.
II. Important Ethnic Minority Festivals in China
Mongolian Festivals
- Naadam Festival: Wrestling, horse racing, archery, and cultural performances.
- Airag Festival: Celebrations centered on horses and mare’s milk wine.
Tibetan Festivals
- Shoton Festival: Tibetan opera, yogurt feasts, and community gatherings.
- Wangguo Festival: Song-and-dance contests, horse racing, and harvest rituals.
Yi People’s Torch Festival
- Held on lunar June 24. Torches, fireworks, bullfighting, wrestling, and feasts.
- Symbolizes reverence for fire, protection, and hopes for a good harvest.
Uyghur Festivals
- Kurban Festival: Religious prayers, sharing food, and sports.
- Rozha Festival: Celebrating the end of Ramadan with cleansing, charity, and gatherings.
Zhuang People’s Third Day of the Third Month Festival
- Ancestral rituals, song gatherings, dances, and sports competitions.
- A major cultural and harvest-related festival for the Zhuang community.
III. Why the Laba Festival Is Often Excluded from the “Top Ten”
The Laba Festival (lunar December 8) is well-known for Laba porridge, but its position is unique. It blends Buddhist commemoration of the Buddha’s enlightenment with local folk winter customs. Because of this mixed identity, it is often regarded as a regional rather than national festival, and thus not consistently listed among the core traditional Chinese festivals.
Originally written in Chinese and adapted for English readers by the NewTodayBit Cultural Team.
A contemporary retelling inspired by Chinese mythology and cultural psychology.