Tag: Chinese festivals

Halloween Special!

Superstitions are a deep part of the roots of every culture. Anyone dropping into the West on October 31st without a knowledge of the culture and customs of Halloween would be very confused by what they saw, children and adults wandering the streets in macabre outfits and demanding ‘trick or treat’. A festival like Halloween is a complex cocktail of centuries of influences, some modern and commercial, but others stretching back to the earliest attempts of people to make sense of their world. In the dark origins of Halloween we can find echoes of the ancient Celtic festival of ‘Samhain’, […]

Zhōngqiū ānkāng

Wishing you a Healthy and Tranquil Mid-Autumn Festival! This year the Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival will take place on Tuesday 17th September. The day of the festival changes every year because like many Asian events it follows a lunar calendar. In this article I’ll talk about some interesting aspects of this festival. Let’s start with a poem: ‘ rēn yǒu bēi huān lí hé yuè yǒu yīn qíng yuán quē cǐ shì gǔ nān quān 人 有 悲 欢 离 合， 月 有 阴 晴 圆 缺，此 事 古 难 全。 People may have sorrows and joys, partings and reunions, […]

Qīxījié – Chinese Valentine’s Day

Cultural travellers in China will know that the seventh day of the seventh month according to the Chinese lunar calendar is Qīxī Festival which literally means the festival of the Evening of Sevens but is increasingly translated as ‘Chinese Valentine’s Day’. This year that means 10th August. So good news for romantics – in China you get two opportunities to write that special poem that will win you undying love. And good news for florists who get to sell twice as many red, red roses. Underneath the commercial opportunities are there any meaningful links between the two events and the […]