The 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar year is an important day for the Chinese people. The day is called Duan Wu Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival, celebrated everywhere in China. This festival dates back to about 2,000 years ago with a number of legends explaining its origin. The best-known story centers on a great patriotic poet named Qu Yuan.

The customs vary a lot in different areas of the country, but most of the families would hang the picture of Zhong Kui (a ghost that can exorcise), calamus and moxa in their houses. People have Dragon Boat Races, eat Zong Zi (dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves) and carry a spice bag around with them.

Zhong Kui is the exorcist par excellence. His picture, a fierce-looking male brandishing a magic sword, used to be hung up in Chinese houses in order to scare away evil spirits and demons, especially in the time of Dragon Boat Festival.       

On this day, most of the families would also hang calamus and moxa (oriental plants) on the front door. This is also to ward off evil.

The main event of the festivities is the Dragon Boat Race. These boats are long and thin with dragon heads on the bow of the ships. The boat races are said to represent the search for Qu’s body, with racing boats in a forward rowing motion, to the rhythm of beating drums.   

Qu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 BC. Since ancient times, Chinese people threw into the water dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves on the day. Therefore the fish would eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating Zong Zi.       

It is a very popular practice to drink this kind of Chinese liquor seasoned with realgar at the Dragon Boat Festival. This is for protection from evil and disease for the rest of the year.
It’s believed that if you carry the small spice bag around with you, it not only drives away evil spirits but also brings fortune and happiness to those who wear it. The small bags are hand-made by local craftsmen. They’re made with red, yellow, green and blue silk, fine satin or cotton. Figures of animals, flowers and fruits are often embroidered onto the bags and inside are mixed Chinese herbal medicines. 
 

The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees.

The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people’s sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one.

Strictly speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Of them, the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days. The Chinese government now stipulates people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Many customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed today, but others have weakened.

On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job’s tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko.

The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people offer sacrifice to the kitchen god. Now however, most families make delicious food to enjoy themselves.

After the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called “Seeing the New Year in”.

Store owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the New Year. Materials not only include edible oil, rice, flour, chicken, duck, fish and meat, but also fruit, candies and kinds of nuts. What’s more, various decorations, new clothes and shoes for the children as well as gifts for the elderly, friends and relatives, are all on the list of purchasing.

Before the New Year comes, the people completely clean the indoors and outdoors of their homes as well as their clothes, bedclothes and all their utensils.

Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content varies from house owners’ wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance.

The Chinese character “fu” (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the “reversed fu” is homophonic with “fu comes”, both being pronounced as “fudaole.” What’s more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall.

People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively “ji”, “yu” and “doufu,” mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and watching TV. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China Central Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. According to custom, each family will stay up to see the New Year in.

Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents. Then each child will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. People in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think “jiaozi” in sound means “bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new”. Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure.

Southern Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, niangao means “higher and higher, one year after another.” The first five days after the Spring Festival are a good time for relatives, friends, and classmates as well as colleagues to exchange greetings, gifts and chat leisurely.

Burning fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy tapes with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons to get the sound too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room.

The lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates to streets and lanes. A series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, lantern festivals and temple fairs will be held for days. The Spring Festival then comes to an end when the Lantern Festival is finished.

China has 56 ethnic groups. Minorities celebrate their Spring Festival almost the same day as the Han people, and they have different customs.
 
 

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Related: Chinese Seals

As an art form born out of the combination of calligraphy (mainly seal script) and carving, Chinese seal cutting was once listed — along with calligraphy, painting and poetry — as one of the four essential skills required of an ancient scholar. A seal in red on a calligraphic work or a painting represents not only a signature, but also an indispensable touch to liven it up.

Though modern seal cutting did not appear until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, ancient seal-cutting as an art existed as early as in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period with its unique style and high degree of artistry, laying a solid foundation for the seal-cutting art.

The art dates back about 3,700 years to the Yin Dynasty and has its origin in the cutting of oracle inscriptions on tortoise shells. It flourished in the Qin Dynasty of 22 centuries ago, when people engraved their names on utensils and documents (of bamboo and wood) to show ownership or authorship. Out of this grew the cutting of personal names on small blocks of horn, jade or wood, namely the seals as we know them today.

The earliest of ancient seals are the “guxi” (antiquated seals), most of which were made during the Warring States Period, with a few of them from the Spring and Autumn Period. There were private and official seals, both known as “xi” regardless of the owner’s superiority or power. The seals might be carved in relief or intaglio and into different shapes, with contents ranging from official post, names to auspicious words and sketchy graphics.

The Han Dynasty witnessed the prosperous development of seal cutting. At that time, only the royal seals were called “xi”, and the others “yin.” Besides, the official seals were often referred to as “zhang” or “yinzhang,” and the private ones “xinyin” or “yinxin.” That’s why seals are called “yinzhang” in Chinese. Seals of this time were richer in both form and content, especially in the variety of private seals, bearing zhuanshu or curly script, which explains why the art of seal-cutting is still called zhuanke and also why the zhuanshu is also known in English as “seal characters.” As time went on, the other script styles appeared one after another on Chinese seals, which may now be cut in any style except caoshu (cursive hand) at the option of the artist. The Han seals fell into two types: cast or chiseled. Most of the Western Han seals were cast while the Eastern Han seals were largely chiseled. This was because in the late years of that period, officials were constantly transferred or died due to the chaos caused by unceasing wars, and there was no time to cast new seals for newly appointed officials. Hence, contents were chiseled on the prepared seal bases. Featuring completely different styles, the two types of seals significantly influenced and inspired the seal cutting art of the later generations.

Chinese Seal Cutting

To go with the use of seals, the lute (red ink paste used for seals) came into existence. Prior to the invention of paper, ancient people wrote official document or letters and kept record of accounts on bamboo slips. In order to keep the contents well in secret and to prevent forgery, lute was used right on the knot where seal was stamped. This was the so-called “jian (seal),” which remained in use until the appearance of inkpad.

The seals of the Three Kingdoms Period and thereafter carried on with the form of the Han seals and the way they worked. By the Southern and Northern dynasties, paper had become very popular, and consequently a new way of stamping seals with the invention of inkpad. Seals of the following dynasties featured a larger seal surface and were largely carved in relief. At the same time, with the great progress in calligraphy and painting, it became popular for calligraphers and painters to stamp the seal to identify the authorship or for collectors to show ownership, which giving rise to prevalence of various seals, such as collector’s seals and library seals, signaling that the practical seals were transiting towards the seal-cutting art. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, importance was gradually attached to seal cutting, with the appearance of many scholars and artists specializing in it. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, seals had evolved from a practical utility and an accessory to a calligraphic work or painting to become an independent art form.

The materials for seals vary with different types of owners. Average persons normally have wood, stone or horn seals, whereas noted public figures would probably prefer seals made of red stained Changhua stone, jade, agate, crystal, ivory and other more valuable materials. Monarchs in the old days used gold or the most precious stones to make their imperial or royal seals. Today, Chinese government offices at lower levels still use wood seals.

Seals cut as artworks should excel in three aspects– calligraphy, composition and the engraver’s handwork. The artist must be good at writing various styles of the Chinese script. He should know how to arrange within a limited space a number of characters — some compact with many strokes and others sketchy with very few — to achieve a vigorous or graceful effect. He should also be familiar with the various materials — stone, brass or ivory — so that he may apply the cutting knife with the right exertion, technique and even rhythm. To watch a master engraver at work is like to see a delightful stage performance.