Essay On Chinese Festivals

Introduction

Festival would mean a day or a period where families, friends, and people come together to celebrate and to commemorate a special event. There are many Chinese Festivals in a lunar year and each of the festivals have their own style of celebrating. There are also different types of food prepared in each festival and each of that food has their own meaning and symbolism. Symbolism is a very important factor for Chinese. Symbolism is defined as “the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character” . Every single object, act that is done or all details in life would carry a deep meaning and most of it would center on positive meanings. For example, the colour red would be the colour of happiness. The food served during Chinese festival celebration also has its own unique meaning. The practice of food symbolism during Chinese Festival Celebrations by our ancestors has been established since more than 2,000 years ago . Foods symbolism in China originated from superstitions or traditional

Chinese New Year is the festival of gatherings where family members who live far from their parents go home to celebrate the beginning of a new year. In China, Chinese New Year is a celebration for being able to survive the harsh winter and also a festival of gathering. During Chinese New Year, there are many foods that will be served over meals and also for praying purposes. Fuchsia Dunlop, BBC journalist and author of the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, says many of the meanings given to Chinese food are homophones of their names in Mandarin. "In the Chinese language, so many different characters have the same sound and it is ripe for word play. For instance nian gao - which is a new year 's cake - also means tall or high, so it is eaten to represent doing better or reaching higher every year," said Fuchsia