Top 10 Chinese Festivals & Holidays

The 15th day of the first lunar month ends the New Year celebration with thousands of illuminated lanterns released into the night sky or floated on rivers across China.

Held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month to honour the poet Qu Yuan, the festival features fierce dragon boat races, sticky rice zongzi, and realgar wine to ward off evil spirits.

Families gather under the full moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month to eat mooncakes, view lanterns, and recite poetry — a harvest festival of exquisite cultural refinement.

In early April, Chinese families visit ancestral graves to sweep them clean, burn paper offerings, and leave food — a deeply sincere expression of filial piety practised for over 2,500 years.

China's equivalent of Valentine's Day commemorates the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, two stars separated by the Milky Way who meet just once a year on this date.

From January to February, Harbin in Manchuria hosts the world's largest ice sculpture festival, with illuminated castles, palaces, and entire city blocks built from blocks of Songhua River ice.

The summer festival on the Mongolian grasslands features the Three Games of Mongolian Men — wrestling, horse racing, and archery — alongside traditional music and a spectacular opening ceremony.

China's 23 million Muslim citizens celebrate this major Islamic festival with prayers at grand mosques in Xinjiang and Ningxia, followed by communal feasts of lamb and traditional music.

The Dai ethnic minority's New Year celebration in Xishuangbanna features three days of water splashing in the streets — the wetter you get, the luckier the year ahead is said to be.