Can you guess which holidays I celebrate? What if I tell you that I came from China. Does that help? Here’s one more clue. I live in Canada. The holidays that I celebrate are Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Christmas and many more (but I’m not going to talk about them or it’ll be too long). These holidays includes the Chinese tradition but also includes the Canadian holiday(s). Now, these are a lot of holidays. You might not know them all, but that’s okay, because I will explain each holiday and you’ll probably understand all of them after, anyway. There will be information about what we do on those holidays and when the celebration take place. After that long explanation of holidays, I will tell you my tradition and other information.
Now, let’s get started with the long explanation of holidays. First, the Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year takes place in either January or February. In 2016, the Spring Festival takes place from February 8. Although, it could last about a week. Each year we celebrate a different animal. In 2014, it was the Horse. In 2015, it was the Sheep. In 2016 it will be the Monkey. The Chinese animal cycle will repeat over and over again without stopping like numbers there’s no end. The cycle includes 12 animals that repeats in a certain order. The order of the animals are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The animals changes each year, since each year is a new year. During this time we usually clean the house, eat dumplings, if the children are behaving we get money and sometimes we put out fireworks. We clean the house for good luck in this new coming year. Eat dumplings to celebrate a new year during the night (dinner). In China, all around cities put on big explosive fireworks in the sky and people usually wear the color red. This is because from an old legend. They say that, in the old days, on this same day, there was a dragon and the way they got rid of it was putting on fireworks and wearing the color red. During the night we also watch CunJieWanHui. this is a Chinese show which performs lot of cool things like magic tricks and many other.
Second, it’s the Lantern Festival. In 2016, the Lantern Festival is celebrated on February 22. On this day, people hang colorful Chinese Lanterns. That’s where it word “Lantern” comes from. The Chinese lanterns are light up by the family. On the streets and in houses are beautiful lighted colors. the lanterns are either floating (tied with white string to the ceiling), fixed, held or flying. People put out fireworks, again. Putting out fireworks are one of China’s tradition. The children guess riddle that are written on the lanterns. We eat tangyuan. There are dragon dances, lion dances and walking on stilts. Lighting and appreciating the different lanterns is the main activity of this festival. The point of this festival remarks he end of Chinese New Year.
Third, it’s the Dragon Boat Festival. This year the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on June 9. It is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar. The Dragon Boat Festival is also known as DuanWu Festival (means double fifth). Now, what do you think we do on this festival? Race with dragon boats? Well, you’re half correct. On this day, we eat rice dumplings also known as ZhongZi in Chinese. In China, most people will want to do the Dragon Boat race in the lake. The front of the boat is designed to be the animal Dragon. This festival comes from long ago when Qu Yuan drowned himself because he rather die than see his country being occupied and conquered by the State of Qin. the citizens had sailed boats down to find him but they couldn’t. then, They started to throw food for him to show their respect but the fish ate all the food. Last, they used the leaves to wrap the rice together so the fish and sea animals couldn’t eat the food that was thrown.
Last, we get into the Canadian holiday(s). Which is…Christmas. Now, I bet all of you like the holiday Christmas. Christmas usually takes place on the 25th of December. This is also one of the long holidays. It lasts about 1-2 weeks. On this day, we exchange gifts, get together, enjoy special meals and some people hang socking (big red Christmas socking). Lot’s of children believe in Santa Claus, so sometimes they leave milk and cookies for him to eat. Most or all children finds their gifts the next day. The gifts are usually put under the Christmas tree or if there little things they are put in the socking. This holiday allows family members to take a break and be united with each other for about 2 weeks. Christmas is a fun holiday to celebrate because of all it’s gifts and the best part is when your parents doesn’t need to go to work and they could play with you.
Finally, my tradition is..Chinese. If you were thought that I was half Canadian and half Chinese well you’re half right. Well, now you know my tradition is Chinese. Even though, I celebrate Christmas and other Canadian holidays my full background is Chinese. That’s way I celebrate the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat festival and other Chinese festivals that I didn’t talk about such as Mid- Autumn Festival. A short explanation on the Mid-Autumn Festival is that we eat moon cake since it is a full moon. Sometimes there is even moon eclipse like on 2015 Mid-Autumn Festival. This happens when the moon passes directly behind Earth in the Solar System. The Earth and moon are aligned exactly, very close with the Earth in the middle. The moon turns colors. Usually between 2 colors such as white and blue. It looks really cool and interesting. Now, that’s enough about the Mid-Autumn Festival. This was always one of my favorite topics to talk about. Hope you learned a lot about these holidays and my tradition/background. Bye!