Traditional Festivals

Five major Chinese festivals offer occasions for family union and feasting.
Foremost is the Lunar New Year, celebrated in the first few days of the
first moon. Friends and relatives exchange visits and gifts while children
and unmarried adults receive lai see, or 'lucky' money.

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth moon
in memory of an ancient Chinese poet who committed suicide by jumping
into a river rather than compromise his honour. The festival has
developed into a joyous event characterised by dragon boat races and rice
dumplings wrapped in lotus leaves.

For the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the eighth moon, adults
and children gather under the full moon with colourful lanterns and
exchange gifts of mooncakes, fruit and wine.

The Ching Ming Festival in spring and Chung Yeung Festival on the ninth
day of the ninth moon are occasions for visiting ancestral graves. Many
people mark Chung Yeung by climbing hills in remembrance of an ancient
Chinese family which escaped plague and death by fleeing to a mountain
top.

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