The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees. The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one.Strictly speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Of them, the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days. The Chinese government now stipulates people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The custom of Spring Festival

Many customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed today, but others have weakened.On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job's tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko.The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people offer sacrifice to the kitchen god. Now however, most families make delicious food to enjoy themselves.After the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called "Seeing the New Year in".Store owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the New Year. Materials not only include edible oil, rice, flour, chicken, duck, fish and meat, but also fruit, candies and kinds of nuts. What's more, various decorations, new clothes and shoes for the children as well as gifts for the elderly, friends and relatives, are all on the list of purchasing.Before the New Year comes, the people completely clean the indoors and outdoors of their homes as well as their clothes, bedclothes and all their utensils.
Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content varies from house owners' wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance. The Chinese character "fu" (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the "reversed fu" is homophonic with "fu comes", both being pronounced as "fudaole." What's more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall.People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively "ji", "yu" and "doufu," mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and watching TV. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China Central Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. According to custom, each family will stay up to see the New Year in.Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents. Then each child will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. People in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think "jiaozi" in sound means "bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new". Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure. Southern Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher, one year after another." The first five days after the Spring Festival are a good time for relatives, friends, and classmates as well as colleagues to exchange greetings, gifts and chat leisurely.Burning fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy tapes with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons to get the sound too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room.The lively atmosphere not only fills every household, but permeates to streets and lanes. A series of activities such as lion dancing, dragon lantern dancing, lantern festivals and temple fairs will be held for days. The Spring Festival then comes to an end when the Lantern Festival is finished.China has 56 ethnic groups. Minorities celebrate their Spring Festival almost the same day as the Han people, and they have different customs.

The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, usually in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. As early as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25), it had become a festival with great significance. This day's important activity is watching lanterns. Throughout the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Buddhism flourished in China. One emperor heard that Buddhist monks would watch sarira, or remains from the cremation of Buddha's body, and light lanterns to worship Buddha on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, so he ordered to light lanterns in the imperial palace and temples to show respect to Buddha on this day. Later, the Buddhist rite developed into a grand festival among common people and its influence expanded from the Central Plains to the whole of China.

The Custom of The Lantern Festival: Till today, the lantern festival is still held each year around the country. Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the streets, attracting countless visitors. Children will hold self-made or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets, extremely excited. "Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential part of the Festival. Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on this day, so it is also called the "Yuanxiao Festival."Yuanxiao also has another name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour with rose petals, sesame, bean paste, jujube paste, walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling. Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or steamed. It tastes sweet and delicious. What’s more, tangyuan in Chinese has a similar pronunciation with "tuanyuan”, meaning reunion. So people eat them to denote union, harmony and happiness for the family.In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged. On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival. Some local governments will even organize a fireworks party. On the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.

On the sixteenth day of the first month of lunar year, the Foshan residents will celebrate the custom of "walking over Tongji to celebrate Yuanxiao". This ancient custom has a long history in Foshan. The Foshan people use the festival to express their wishes in this way. 　

At the south of Chancheng District, where the Nanpu Park is located nowadays, there was a river named Tongji River, over which was a bridge called "Tongji Bridge". Nowadays the river is no longer there, but the bridge is still there. At this day each year, crowds of people will walk over the bridge to burn incense, throw vegetable and play windmill. 　

"Walking Across Tongji" started from Qing Dynasty, prosperous in Qianlong period. According the "Foshan Loyal Village Record" published in 1923: "on the Fifteenth Night of the first month of the New Year), the whole street is covered with lanterns. … Since Spring Festival, the people from other villages will come to buy lanterns. Crowds of people holding lanterns go to the Tongji Bridge, one following the other. If you go to the Sheng Gate (now the gate head) and have look, you will see people holding lanterns everywhere."　

Foshan people believe that "walking on Tongji will have no worry". In China, for the "Yuanxiao Festival" on the fifteenth day of the first month of lunar year, besides the celebrating acitivities, there are also religious activities, such as "driving illness", which is also called "baking illness" and "dispelling illness". The participants are mostly the women, who walk together along the walls or over the bridge to the suburb to drive the illness. Foshan people's "Walking Across Tongji" custom is estimated to result from this practice on "Yuanxiao Festival". At that time there was no street lamp in Foshan, the residents had to carry lantern for lighting when they walked from Pujun Fair to Tongji Bridge to "Celebrate Yuanxiao".

As time passes, the ancient custom of "walking over Tongji to celebrate Yuanxiao" is gradually endowed with modern color and new meaning, namely "walking over Tongji to do good things". This new form brings useful inspiration to development of Foshan traditional culture. In fact, through the ancient custom of "Walking Over Tongji" with new meaning, we have seen the Foshan people's aspiration toward good life and Foshan people's confidence and determination to build good future.

Lion dance, also called "Xingshi", is a form of local art based on martial skills and imitation of a lion's body movements, also an entertainment and an activity to strengthen one's health .

Lion dance is so much preferred that every holiday or joyous occasion witnesses lion dance demonstrations for the sake of celebration, especially during the Spring Festival. The dance is performed by two people, one holding the head while the other holding the back part of the lion. Running after a person with a mask, the lion dances to the rhythm of drums, gongs and cymbals. The arrival to a household or business of the lion makes the residents and the businessman beam with joy. They express their thanks by giving some li shi (lucky money).

The highlight of a lion dance is ball-picking. If two lions happen to meet (called hui shi), they as a rule bow to each other as a salutation. The dance may involve one or two or a group of lions. Since 1950, lion dance performance has become one of the important recreation and sports activity among social groups and villages. Many factories and villages have their own lion dance performance teams. 

Foshan is known as the home of Guangdong Opera or Yueju,The"Red Boat" where players stayed while visiting the city,still stands here.

Huanggong Ancestral Temple, within which is the Guangdong Opera Museum, is just a few minutes' walk from Zumiao. Opened in 2003, its 2,000 square-meter exhibition area is divided into 13 sections, displaying 3,000 out of a total 20,000 relics that celebrate the history, art and personages of the opera. Exhibits include stage costumes, play books, program sheets, performance posters, musical instruments, photo albums, and works of painting and calligraphy by famous opera performers dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties and including contemporary artists. It is the largest museum of folk opera in China. 

Guangdong Opera has been popular in Foshan since the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 AD). Qionghua (Jade Flower, another name for Guangdong Opera) Guild Hall, first of its kind, was established during Ming Emperor Jiajing's reign, demonstrating that Foshan had long been a Guangdong Opera center. The early Qing Dynasty was the Silver Age of Foshan's Guangdong Opera. Having absorbed the rhythms and cadences of Guangdong music and balladry, as well as aspects of Southern martial arts Schools, Guangdong opera spanned both refined and popular tastes. Famous dramatist Tian Han described Guangdong Opera as "ebullient while exceedingly sentimental." There are 1,1361 Guangdong Opera plays - the world's longest play list. 

The charm of Guangdong opera permeates Foshan's residential areas, teahouses, and small theaters. It has more than 400 amateur opera troupes with players numbering 5,000. In 2003, the Foshan municipal government organized a Guangdong Opera culture week whose various performances included renditions of Guangdong operas in English, Portuguese and Malay. 

The Dragon Boat Festival, the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, has had a history of more than 2,000 years. It is usually in June in the Gregorian calendar.There are many legends about the evolution of the festival, the most popular of which is in commemoration of Qu Yuan (340-278 BC). Qu Yuan was minister of the State of Chu and one of China's earliest poets. In face of great pressure from the powerful Qin State, he advocated enriching the country and strengthening its military forces so as to fight against the Qin. However, he was opposed by aristocrats headed by Zi Lan, and later deposed and exiled by King Huai. In his exiled days, he still cared much for his country and people and composed immortal poems including Li Sao (The Lament), Tian Wen (Heavenly Questions) and Jiu Ge (Nine Songs), which had far-reaching influences. In 278 BC, he heard the news that Qin troops had finally conquered Chu's capital, so he finished his last piece Huai Sha (Embracing Sand) and plunged himself into the Miluo River, clasping his arms to a large stone. The day happened to be the 5th of the 5th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. The custom of The Dragon Boat Festival:Eat rice dumpling and drink realgar wine: After his death, the people of Chu crowded to the bank of the river to pay their respects to him. The fishermen sailed their boats up and down the river to look for his body. People threw into the water zongzi (pyramid-shaped glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves) and eggs to divert possible fish or shrimp from attacking his body. An old doctor poured a jug of reaglar wine (Chinese liquor seasoned with realgar) into the water, hoping to turn all aquatic beasts drunk. That's why people later followed the customs such as dragon boat racing, eating zongzi and drinking realgar wine on that day.Zongzi is an essential food of the Dragon Boat Festival. It is said that people ate them in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC). In early times, it was only glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or other plant leaves and tied with colored thread, but now the fillings are more diversified, including jujube and bean paste, fresh meat, and ham and egg yolk. If time permits, people will soak glutinous rice, wash reed leaves and wrap up zongzi themselves. Otherwise, they will go to shops to buy whatever stuff they want. The custom of eating zongzi is now popular in North and South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.Dragon boat racing: it is an indispensable part of the festival, held all over the country. As the gun is fired, people will see racers in dragon-shaped canoes pulling the oars harmoniously and hurriedly, accompanied by rapid drums, speeding toward their destination. Folk tales say the game originates from the activities of seeking Qu Yuan's body, but experts, after painstaking and meticulous research, conclude that dragon boat racing is a semi-religious, semi-entertaining program from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). In the following thousands of years, the game spread to Japan, Vietnam and Britain as well as China's Taiwan and Hong Kong. Now dragon boat racing has developed into an aquatic sports item which features both Chinese tradition and modern sporting spirit. In 1980, it was listed into the state sports competition programs and has since been held every year. The award is called "Qu Yuan Cup."Perfume pouch:On Dragon Boat Festival, parents also need to dress their children up with a perfume pouch. They first sew little bags with colorful silk cloth, then fill the bags with perfumes or herbal medicines, and finally string them with silk threads. The perfume pouch will be hung around the neck or tied to the front of a garment as an ornament. They are said to be able to ward off evil.

Mooncakes are to Mid-Autumn Festival what mince pies are to Christmas. The seasonal round cakes traditionally have a sweet filling of lotus seed paste or red bean paste and often have one or more salted duck eggs in the center to represent the moon. And the moon is what this celebration is all about. Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th month, it is the time when the moon is said to be at its brightest and fullest. The story of the customs of Mid-Autumn Festival:There are two legends which claim to explain the tradition of eating mooncakes. One Tang Dynasty myth holds that the Earth once had 10 suns circling it. One day all 10 suns appeared at once, scorching the planet with their heat. It was thanks to a skillful archer named Hou Yi that the Earth was saved. He shot down all but one of the suns. As his reward, the Heavenly Queen Mother gave Hou Yi the Elixir of Immortality, but she warned him that he must use it wisely. Hou Yi ignored her advice and, corrupted by fame and fortune, became a tyrannical leader. Chang-Er, his beautiful wife, could no longer stand by and watch him abuse his power so she stole his Elixir and fled to the moon to escape his angry wrath. And thus began the legend of the beautiful woman in the moon, the Moon Fairy. The second legend has it that during the Yuan Dynasty, an underground group led by Zhu Yuan Zang was determined to rid the country of Mongolian dominance. The moon cake was created to carry a secret message. When the cake was opened and the message read, an uprising was unleashed which successfully routed the Mongolians. It happened at the time of the full moon, which, some say, explains why mooncakes are eaten at this time.