Chinese

26 Jan (Mon)	Yuan Tan (Chinese New Year)	The most important of all the traditional Chinese holidays. The New Year season lasts for 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival, but it is the first week of the festivities that is considered the most important. The festival is celebrated with fireworks, dances (especially Lion Dances) and the giving of gifts, flowers and sweets. Gold and red are the dominant colours — gold symbolizing the wish for prosperity, red traditionally being considered a lucky colour. On the eve of the New Year a reunion dinner is held, when members of the extended family gather together. On New Year's Day, red envelopes containing money are exchanged. Most importantly, the first day of the Chinese New Year is a time when family members, in order of their seniority, will pay a visit to the oldest and most senior member of their family.
9 Feb (Mon)	Teng Chieh (Lantern Festival)	This traditional Chinese festival occurs on the day of the first full moon of the year and marks the end of the Chinese New Year season. Celebrations include fireworks, folk dancing and traditional public performances such as the dragon parade and the lion dance. Yuanxiao, a round, sweet, stuffed dumpling made with sticky rice flour is the traditional food associated with this festival. People hang paper lanterns along streets and around homes and carry them around parks and outside temples. People often write auspicious phrases on the lanterns to ward off evil spirits and attract good ones; some will decorate their lantern with a riddle and award a prize to the first person who solves it. The light given off by the lanterns is said to attract heavenly spirits and allow celebrants the chance to see them.
5 Apr (Sun)	Ch'ing Ming (Festival of Pure Brightness)	This festival is the first occasion of the New Year when people visit the graves of deceased family members. Traditionally, after sweeping the graves, offerings are made to the spirits of the dead. Often a picnic will be held by the graveside, "inviting" the spirits of ancestors to feast with the family. During this festival family togetherness plays an important part.
19 Jun (Fri)	Dragon Boat Festival	Also known as Tuen Ng Festival or Duan Wu Festival, this festival is held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar. The festival is said to commemorate the death of the poet and statesman Ch'u Yuan (circa 279BC) who, disgusted by the corruption of the government, decided to commit suicide by drowning. Local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish to prevent them from eating his body. They also sat on dragon boats, and tried to scare the fish away by playing loud drums and with the fierce looking dragon-heads on the front of their boats. To commemorate this people eat zongzi (the food originally intended to feed the fish) and race dragon boats.
30 Oct (Fri)	Chung Yuan (Festival of Hungry Ghosts)	Chinese Buddhist and ancestral festival. During this festival paper objects for use in the spirit world are made and offered to aid the spirits who have no resting place or descendants. Large paper boats are made and burnt at temples to help spirits on their journey across the sea of torment to Nirvana.