Even though lots of different types of festivals exist, there are only four main ones, the New Year’s Festival, the Lantern Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn festival. All festivals are celebrated according to the lunar calendar, and all of them came from an event.
The New Year’s Festival is the main festival of the year. It is celebrated from December 30th of the previous year (the last day) to January 1st. The Chinese believed that all members of the family must return home to celebrate. Usually, two days before New Year’s, the Chinese people decorated their houses with red lanterns, red scrolls and other things that are red. Red was used to prevent the New Year monster coming.
On New Year’s Eve, the family will have a big feast, fish being the main dish. It was fish because there is a Chinese idiom called 年年有余 (nián nián yŏu yû). Since 余 and 鱼 (meaning fish) have the same pronunciation, this is where 年年有鱼 comes from. 年年有鱼 means to have fish every year to eat, and surprisingly, 年年有余 means there is extra of something every year. This simply means the fish is for good luck.
Children received some money (this started around 2000 BC, when coins were invented) because back then, they believed it can prevent monsters from coming to capture of devour them. New Year’s is a bit more boring; no special events were held, but they have a good feeling that the old year is past, and this year will be happy. Many people actually look forward to this festival, as it is usually the time to see your family again.
The Lantern Festival isn’t as special as the New Year's Festival, but it is still important, as it celebrates the first new moon of the year. On this day, they eat homemade rice balls and walk on the streets, gazing at the moon and at the lanterns put up by the people. The lanterns mean the moon.
The Dragon Boat Festival celebrates the day Qu Yuan, a famous poet, that suicide himself by jumping in to the river because of the fall of his own state. They made a special type of dumpling called 粽子 (zhòng zi), because it was what the people threw in the river in honour of him. They also had an event called the Dragon Boat Race because Qu Yuan himself was rowing a boat before he drowned himself. This festival honours the death of Qu Yuan.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on August 15th, when the moon is the largest and roundest. They noticed that the moon’s movement had something to do with the seasons, so this was the time to make sacrifices to the moon. They also eat moon cakes and admire the moon.
The many types of festivals were celebrated in honour of an event, and will be carried on towards the future.