Winter holiday customs in china

China is the world's second largest nation in area and has the highest population. Moreover, it has its civilization rooted as before as the world's first civilizations had appeared. All this points to a very rich and wealthy customs observed in China. Going on a winter holiday trip is not only worth because of its historic and tourist attracting sites, but also watching the winter holiday customs in China. China, the land of dragon celebrates many festivals during this season. It observes the lunar calendar and some of the winter holiday customs in China are describes as below:

Chinese New Year Eve: This day fall on the last day of their lunar year. The custom is to clean the house, put new posters of gods on front doors, do fireworks, and have a family re-union dinner. This dinner consists of at least 10 course meals with fish. The fish dish symbols the abundance of the coming year. This generally falls on the last week of January or first week of February.

Chinese New Year/ The spring festival: The first day of lunar year. People enjoy with lots of firework and visiting their relatives and doing customary worships.

The ice and snow festival/ Lantern ice festival/ Lantern festival: This is a very famous winter holiday custom in China. It actually falls on the 15th day of first lunar month, but for tourists, they organize a long term parade. It is especially famous in the place known as Harbin. It is a show of multicolored lanterns with snow sculptures and carvings, all through the place. Many huge Chinese monuments are carved through snow and are on the show. It is a major tourist attraction around early January to mid February.

Spirit Festival/ Water lantern Festival: This is a winter holiday custom in China celebrated on 15th day of 10th lunar month. Here, many flower shaped lanterns are left with the river stream to symbolize tribute to ancient spirit.

Winter Solstice festival/ Mid-Winter festival: This is celebrated on the day of winter solstice on 21st of December. They do ancestor worship and feast. This is also called Chinese thanksgiving.

Laba Festival/ Congee festival: This falls on the 8th day of last lunar month of the year. This is related to worship of Lord Buddha. In fact, it is the day, when Buddha attained the enlightenment. There is a very special dish for this occasion called Laba congee. This dish is made up of mixed grains and fruits.

So, these are some of the unique winter holiday customs in China. They follow the lunar calendar, however many of their holidays are at the same time that is celebrated around the world. So, it is a good time to visit China for winter holiday.

Linus Orakles
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