January

5th January 2020

5th January 2021

The Harbin Ice and Snow Festival lasts for over a month, when the average temperature is -16.8 degrees Celsius, and is famous for exquisite and artistic ice and snow sculptures which are combined with coloured lights and music to create a fairytale world of glittering crystal buildings, often replicas of famous buildings, flowers, animals and so on of all shapes and sizes, with a different theme every year.

February

25th January 2020

12th February 2021

Chinese New Year is also called Spring Festival, the start of the new moon on the first day of the first lunar month, and it will be the Year of the Rat. The festival is the equivalent of our Christmas and New Year’s Eve rolled into one, with family reunions and lots of eating. Fish is often eaten as the word for fish in Chinese sounds the same as the word for surplus. A few days beforehand households have a major spring clean so that no sweeping needs to be done on New Year’s Eve itself in case good luck is also swept away. Red envelopes containing money are given to children and the unmarried. Two weeks later at the first full moon of the new year is the Lantern Festival where lanterns are lit outside every house and shop, often with riddles on them, and entertainment involves lion dances, stiltwalkers, fireworks, folk dancing and eating rice dumplings.

March

25th March - 11th April 2020 

25th March - 11th April 2021

Peach Blossom Festival in Shanghai's Nanhui district is an annual event, with folk dancing, pig racing and other local activities.

8th February  - 8th March 2020

8th February - 8th March 2021

Taihu Lake Plum Blossom Festival takes place in Suzhou on these dates every year when a variety of folk events are staged to celebrate the coming of Spring.

April

4th April 2020

4th April 2021

Qingming Festival is also known as Clear Bright Festival, Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping Day and denotes a time for people to tend to the graves of departed ones, clearing weeds, planting flowers, offering food and paper money to the dead so that they are provided for in their afterlife, and performing the kowtow to show respect. It is also a time for enjoying the beauties of nature in spring and flying kites with lanterns, and many people make a special outing into the countryside on this day.

19th April 2020

13th March 2021

Third Month Fair, Dali, when the different minority tribes of Yunnan congregate for a great market.

May

27th May 2020

12th May 2021

Rao Sanling, the Festival of the Three Temples – for the Bai people in Dali, this is the spring holiday before they plant their rice seedlings and start farming work, and when they make sacrifices for the success of the coming harvest. Wearing their best clothes they congregate at the foot of Cangshan Mountain, walk around the three holy temples, sing, dance and make merry.

June

25th June 2020

14th June 2021

Dragon Boat Festival on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, is a boat race with long canoes rowed by a team and egged on by a drummer, with dragon heads on the stern, the winning team ensuring a good harvest and prosperity for their village. Sticky rice pyramid-shaped dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and with a variety of fillings, zongzi, are traditionally eaten, children have coloured silks tied around their wrists and ankles to protect them from illness, and carry pouches filled with perfume.

July

9th July 2020

14th July 2021

The Naxi minority of Lijiang hold a great Torch Festival where they construct giant decorated torches which they parade around the town and fields to illuminate crops, drive out evil and pests, and celebrate a good harvest in advance. Always accompanied by singing, music, archery, bull-wrestling, horse-racing and tug of war.

11th July - 15th July 2020  

11th July - 15th Jly 2021

Mongolian Naadam Fair - a festival of traditional Mongolian sports – archery, horse-racing and wrestling – traditionally when members of all the nomadic tribes would gather to compete and show off their skills. The wrestling tournament starts off with over a thousand competitors, the champion is called The Titan, the horses are jockeyed by children in a cross-country race rather than on a racetrack, and men and women can compete in the archery competition where the results are sung out.

August

30th August 2020

Tibetan Shoton (yoghurt banquet) Festival marks the end of the monks’ 100-day summer retreat and and consists of eating yoghurt and watching opera and yak races at Norbulingka, there is also folk dancing and singing at the Potala Palace. It is preceeded by a procession at Drepung Monastery of the great Thangka or holy image of the Maitreya Buddha.

25th August 2020

14th August 2021

Double Seventh Festival or the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, celebrated as the Chinese Valentine’s Day, and on this night, girls will face the bright moon and pray to heaven for a lover that can satisfy her heart’s desire.

September

1st October 2020

21st September 2021

Mid Autumn Festival (Moon Cake Festival) The moon is always at its fullest at this time of year, and traditionally the Emperor made sacrifices to the Moon at this time – nowadays people eat moon cakes instead which are filled with red bean paste, lotus paste, nuts or egg yolks, stay up late to admire the full moon and think of home.

October

25th October 2020

09th September 2021

Chongyang Festival, the Double-Ninth, held on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, and on this day people eat chongyang cakes (cakes filled with nuts) and drink chrysanthemum wine (the flower has curative powers). It’s also designated as Seniors’ Day when older people are taken on a country outing. The number nine in Chinese also sounds like the word for ‘forever’.

November

25th September - 10th October 2020

25th September - 10th October 2021

Confucius Festival in Qufu commemorates the birth of the great Chinese scholar and philosopher Confucius, whose ideas are still part of everyday life here. At his birthplace in Shandong province there are various ceremonies worshipping at his temple, and performances of kung fu, ancient music and dance.

December

21st December 2020

21st December 2020

Dōngzhì Festival or Winter Solstice when it is customary for families to gather, eat dumpling soup, wear new clothes, and visit their ancestors’ graves.