“Qilin Mythical Creature Coming to Gift a Child,” a New Year Picture from the Qing Dynasty, preserved in the National Art Museum of China in Beijing Photo: Ren Guanhong/CSST

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As folk carriers of Chinese civilization, traditional Chinese festivals have developed into a continuous, stable, and ever-evolving system over the course of history. Their enduring vitality lies in their relatively stable structures, upheld by a cultural transmission mechanism that preserves their intrinsic frameworks and core spirit while allowing for adaptation and growth.

Evolution of traditional festival system  

Rooted in agrarian civilization, the traditional Chinese festival system underwent a gradual and complex historical evolution.

During the pre-Qin period, a primitive festival system began to take shape, encompassing both official and folk festivals. Official festivals primarily involved seasonal ceremonies and had relatively fixed dates, such as the “Worship of the Eight Agricultural Deities” in the twelfth lunar month and the “Chaozheng” ritual [court officials pay New Year homage to the emperor] on the first day of a lunar year. Folk festivals, in contrast, were more flexible in timing and generally observed in spring and autumn. For example, the poem “Zhen Wei” from the The Book of Songs describes mid-spring celebrations: The Zhen and Wei rivers stretch far and long,/ Their waters flowing towards the distant horizon./ Young men and women wander beyond the town,/ with cattail reeds in hands. Festival customs of this period reflected beliefs in deities, primitive religious practices, and sacrificial culture.  

During the Han Dynasty, festivals became more systematized and increasingly ethical in orientation. The adoption of the Taichu Calendar integrated lunar and solar cycles [meaning years were based on the solar calendar, approximately 365 days, while months were based on the lunar calendar]. This established the first lunar month as the beginning of the year and provided a lasting temporal framework for traditional festivals. By the Eastern Han period, a rudimentary system of traditional festivals had formed, including “Zheng Dan” (New Year’s Day), the Beginning of Spring, “She Day” (the day of worshipping Kitchen God), Shangsi Festival (celebrated on the third day of the third lunar month), Summer Solstice, the Double Fifth, Double Seventh, Double Ninth, and Winter Solstice. With the widespread influence of Confucian thought, Han festival customs underwent an ethical shift, centering on ancestor worship and promoting family consciousness through festival interactions.  

The traditional festival system was formally established during the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties. Records of the Seasonal Customs of Jing and Chu, a text from the Southern Dynasties, documents customs such as setting off firecrackers on Lunar New Year’s Day, prohibiting fire during the Cold Food Festival, dragon boat racing during the Dragon Boat Festival, young women praying for wisdom and dexterity on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, and climbing high on the Double Ninth Festival. Although the Qingming Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival were not yet mentioned, most major traditional festivals and their associated customs had already taken shape, comprising a comprehensive system involving rituals, food, legends, entertainment, and crafts. Festivals of this period often reinterpreted their origins or customs through legendary figures, encouraging thematic renewal and reconstruction.  

During the Tang and Song dynasties, major traditional festivals became firmly established nationwide. The Qingming Festival gradually emerged as an independent celebration, incorporating customs from the Shangsi and Cold Food festivals. The Mid-Autumn Festival, once an elite literary gathering, evolved into a popular celebration marked by family feasts and reunions: “Arranging family feasts, reuniting daughters and sons to celebrate the holiday.” The Double Seventh Festival also flourished: “The moon over Chang’an City is like a fine silk thread, flowing down into the courtyards of thousands of homes. On this night, every household holds needles and threads, praying for skill and making offerings to the moon.” The Winter Solstice gained prominence, celebrated as elaborately as the Chinese New Year: “The capital attaches great importance to this festival.” The Lantern Festival was marked by grand lantern displays, in which “The streets are packed with people and carriages.” Compared to earlier periods, Tang and Song festivals placed greater emphasis on enjoyment, alleviating the solemnity and tension of earlier celebrations.  

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, festivals further emphasized ethical interactions and secular entertainment. Ancestor worship became widespread, as noted in Qing Jia Lu [a detailed account of the customs, festivals, daily life, and cultural practices of the city of Suzhou during the Qing Dynasty]: “Rich or poor, all pay respects to their ancestors, calling it ‘celebrating a festival.’” Human interactions during festivals often involved gift-giving, feasting, greetings, and married women returning to their parental homes for visits, reinforcing kinship ties and expanding social networks. With the rise of commerce, urban culture, and a growing rural population, urban-rural differences in festival culture emerged. Festival customs also became increasingly commercialized and secularized, with bustling markets and temple fairs flourishing, fostering a dynamic and vibrant festival economy.

Internal structure of traditional festival system  

An examination of festival traditions across historical periods reveals that the structural framework of traditional Chinese festivals has remained remarkably consistent for over two millennia. This stability is largely due to the temporal distribution of festivals throughout the year, which has provided a solid chronological framework, with each specific festival maintaining its own underlying ritual structure.

The distribution of traditional festivals throughout the year follows a regular and precise pattern. Scholars both in China and abroad have recognized the “fixed structure” of traditional festivals, such as their distribution between the first and second halves of the year, the occurrence of festivals on dates with repeated numbers in the lunar calendar, festivals celebrated on the 15th day of a lunar month, and the tendency for festivals to fall on the beginning or the end of a lunar month. Additionally, festivals are more commonly observed in odd-numbered months than in even-numbered ones. This strict and orderly arrangement of traditional festivals closely aligns with the rhythm of agricultural life. 

Festivals have developed relatively stable ritual types due to their association with key seasonal, monthly, and annual transitions. To navigate these critical moments, people devised “transitional rites” to ensure a smooth passage from one phase to the next. Among these, the most enduring is the “farewell to the old and welcome the new” ritual structure of New Year’s celebrations. The earliest comprehensive record of such ceremonies appears in the Eastern Han book of agricultural arrangement titled Simin Yueling, which describes ancestor worship, family reunion dinners, and New Year greetings—core customs that have persisted for nearly two millennia in China. On New Year’s Eve, elaborate marginal rituals mark the transition from the old year to the new, including setting off firecrackers and posting Spring Festival couplets to ward off evil and pray for blessings, gathering for reunion dinners to strengthen family bonds, and staying up late to witness the arrival of the New Year. “Welcoming the New Year” is the core activity on the first day of the lunar New Year, while rituals extending through the fifteenth day focus on “gathering.” Through visiting relatives and friends with New Year greetings, people reaffirm their relationships with one another and gradually integrate into the social life. 

The ritual structures of other important festivals have also remained largely stable. The Lantern Festival, for example, follows a “taboo-breaking” structure, allowing people to step out of the sacred “New Year space” through festive lantern displays and communal celebrations, marking their reentry into everyday life in the New Year. The “warding off disasters” ritual structure of the Dragon Boat Festival involves hanging mugwort, wearing sachets filled with herbs, and hanging images of Zhong Kui to ward off disasters, as well as dragon boat racing and “dou cao” [using grass or plant stems to compete in games] to balance yin and yang, with the aim of surviving the “evil day of the evil month” and staying healthy. The Mid-Autumn Festival is structured around “reunion and togetherness,” with customs such as moon-gazing, eating mooncakes, and gathering for family feasts under the full moon, reinforcing bonds among relatives separated by distance. While festival customs have evolved over time, they have largely adhered to these established thematic frameworks, with their underlying ritual structures rarely undergoing fundamental change. 

Structural transmission of traditional festivals   

The stability of the traditional festival system’s internal structure primarily stems from two factors. The first is the continuity of the calendar system. Since the implementation of the Taichu Calendar, subsequent dynasties have largely adhered to this system, ensuring continuity and stability in festival timing. The second factor lies in the well-defined functions and nature of festivals. As a form of “small tradition,” festive culture serves as a vital channel for transmitting the values and knowledge systems of the “big tradition” in a more accessible manner. Almost every major festival carries specific social functions: the New Year festival resets the social calendar, while the Dragon Boat Festival in ancient times played an important role in health and epidemic prevention. The fundamental positioning and functions of festivals determine the stability of their ritual structures.

While specific social and cultural conditions influence the outward expressions of festivals in different historical periods, leading to reinterpretations, modifications, additions, and even the merging of customs, the core “tradition” of festivals remains intact. Rather than being forgotten, disrupted, or fundamentally altered, traditional festivals have been continuously transmitted in a relatively stable form. 

Zhang Na is an associate professor from the College of Humanities and Social Development at Nanjing Agricultural University.

Edited by REN GUANHONG