festival

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar.

Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day. New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth, when the moon is brightest. In China, people may take weeks of holiday from work to prepare for and celebrate the New Year.

Kung hei fat choy! This year the Chinese New Year is on 18th February 2007. It will be the Year of the Pig.

This year new is particularly special as it is The Year of the Golden Pig, when a Pig year combines with a Fire element year - this happens every 60 years and heralds an extremely lucky and prosperous year. The Chinese believe a child born this year in The Year of the Golden Pig will be blessed with a carefree, wealthy and loving life!

Enjoy these Chinese New Year activities and crafts with your family!

The Mid-Autumn Festival (Traditional Chinese: 中秋節; Simplified Chinese: 中秋节; pinyin: Zhōngqiūjié; Taiwanese: Tiong Chhiu; Cantonese: dzong1 tsau1; Korean: Ch'usǒk; Japanese: Tsukimi 月見/つきみ; Vietnamese Tết Trung Thu. In Malaysia and Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival, similar in name to a different festival which falls on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year). The Mid-Autumn Festival is a popular Asian celebration of abundance and togetherness, dating back over 3,000 years to China's Zhou Dynasty.

The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian Calendar), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. At this time, the moon is at its fullest and brightest, marking an ideal time to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomeloes together. It is also common to have barbecues outside under the moon, and to put pomelo rinds on one's head. Brightly lit lanterns are often carried around by children. Together with the celebration, there appear some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting lanterns on towers, and fire dragon dances. Shops selling mooncakes, before the festival, often display pictures of Chang'e, floating to the moon.