China’s new holidays

To revive ancient culture, the government of China last December revised the nation’s official holiday schedule to include three traditional festivals.

• Qingming, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, takes place every April 4 or 5 and centers around honoring ancestors’ graves and memories. 

• Duanwu, or the Dragon Boat Festival, takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar year. (In 2009, the holiday falls on Thursday, May 28; many businesses and workers are expected to take a 4-day weekend.)

This festival commemorates poet Qu Yuan, who 2,500 years ago drowned himself in the Miluo River as a protest against government corruption. In their grief and admiration, villagers threw zongzi (rice dumplings) into the water so that fish wouldn’t disturb the body before it could be retrieved by paddled dragon boats. The festival today is celebrated by dragon boat races and the eating of zongzi.

• The Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, has long been an important part of Chinese family traditions, but now it will be a national day off from work. Taking place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month (Sept. 14 in 2008 and Oct. 3 in 2009), it is marked by family reunions, the eating of moon cakes and celebrations under the full moon.