Unit 7 · Festivals and Everyday Life

Look up at the moon for a month. It grows from a thin sliver to a full circle and back again. That trip takes about 29 and a half days. The traditional Chinese calendar uses this trip to count months.

A calendar that counts by the moon is called a lunar calendar. The Chinese calendar also watches the sun, so the seasons stay in place. Because it uses both, scholars call it a lunisolar calendar. Each new month starts on the night of the new moon.

Most people in China today use the same calendar as Illinois for school and work. Families use the old calendar for festivals. So Lunar New Year can fall on a different day in January or February each year.

Ask a friend who celebrates Lunar New Year, "What is your animal?" They may say the Tiger or the Rabbit. Each year in the Chinese calendar is named for one of twelve animals. This set of animals is called the zodiac.

The twelve animals go in order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. After the Pig, the list starts again with the Rat. So each animal comes back every twelve years.

A well-known folk story tells how the animals raced across a river. The order they finished became the order of the years. The clever Rat rode on the Ox’s back and jumped ahead at the end. Families tell this story to children at New Year.

Before Lunar New Year, many families clean their homes from top to bottom. People say this sweeps out the old year. Then they hang red paper with wishes for luck and health. Red is a color of joy in Chinese culture.

On New Year’s Eve, families share a big reunion dinner. People travel far to be home for it. Children often get red envelopes with money inside from older relatives. Many families also honor their ancestors with food and bows.

The celebration lasts about fifteen days. It ends with the Lantern Festival on the first full moon of the year. Families hang lanterns and eat sweet rice balls. Round foods and a round moon stand for a family together.

Mei’s family went to the cemetery on Qingming. The name means "clear and bright." It falls in early April, around April 4 or 5. In English it is often called Tomb-Sweeping Day.

On this day families visit the graves of their ancestors. They sweep, pull weeds and wipe the stones. Then they set out food, tea and flowers. Many bow or burn incense. Some families burn paper gifts for those who have died.

Qingming is also a spring day. Families may take walks, fly kites and enjoy the new green leaves. In Taiwan, Qingming is a public holiday. In the United States, families often visit on the weekend closest to it.

Why do families work so hard on Qingming? Part of the answer comes from Confucius. He was a teacher in China about 2,500 years ago. His students wrote down his words in a book called the Analects.

Confucius taught xiao (shyow). It means respect and care for your parents and family. In Analects, book 2, he says children should serve their parents with respect while they live. When parents die, children should bury them and honor them with proper rites.

Many families say Qingming puts this teaching into action. They remember who came before them. Not every family who keeps Qingming thinks of Confucius. For many, it is simply what their family has always done.

Picture long, thin boats with dragon heads. Twenty rowers pull hard while a drummer beats the rhythm. This is the Dragon Boat Festival. It comes on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, in early summer.

People tell that the festival remembers Qu Yuan (choo yuen). He was a poet and royal adviser who lived about 2,300 years ago. The story says he was sent away by his king, and he drowned himself in a river in sorrow for his land.

In the story, people raced out in boats to search for him. They threw rice into the water. Today people eat zongzi, sticky rice wrapped in leaves. Dragon boat races now take place around the world, including in Chicago.

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the moon is full and bright. This is the Mid-Autumn Festival. It comes in September or early October. Families gather outside to look at the moon together.

They share mooncakes. These are round pastries filled with sweet bean or lotus seed paste. Some have a salted egg yolk inside, like a small moon. Children carry lanterns shaped like rabbits, fish or stars.

The round moon and round cakes stand for a family that is whole and together. People who live far from home often say they look at the same moon as their family. It helps them feel close.

At the Mid-Autumn Festival, grandparents often tell the story of Chang'e (chahng-uh). Long ago, the story says, ten suns burned the earth. A great archer named Hou Yi shot down nine of them and saved the people.

As a reward, Hou Yi was given a potion that would let him live forever. Chang’e drank it. Tellings differ on why. Some say she was protecting it from a thief. She floated up to the moon and lives there still, with a white rabbit.

There are many versions of this legend. Families tell the one they learned as children. Looking at the full moon, children try to spot the rabbit’s shape. The story makes the moon feel like an old friend.

Lunar New Year is not only Chinese. In Korea it is called Seollal. Families wear hanbok, bow to elders and eat rice cake soup. In Vietnam it is Tet. Families visit ancestors’ altars and share sticky rice cakes.

The fall moon festival has many names too. In Korea, Chuseok is a harvest holiday when families visit graves and share food. In Vietnam, Tet Trung Thu is a children’s festival with lanterns and lion dances.

Families brought these festivals to the United States. In Chicago’s Chinatown, a Lunar New Year parade fills Wentworth Avenue. Each family mixes old ways and new ones. Two families may keep the same day very differently.

Confucius was born in a place now called Qufu (choo-foo), in eastern China. After he died, people honored him at his old home. Over many centuries, rulers made the site larger and grander.

Today the Temple of Confucius in Qufu has many halls, courtyards and old trees. Its main hall has yellow roof tiles, a color once used for emperors. Stone tablets in the courtyards record gifts and visits by rulers over the centuries.

Near the temple stand the Kong family mansion and the Kong family cemetery. Confucius’s family name was Kong. In 1994, UNESCO named the temple, mansion and cemetery a World Heritage Site.

Confucius is honored as a great teacher. Tradition dates his birthday to about 551 BCE. In Taiwan, September 28 is kept as his birthday. It is also Teachers' Day.

Early that morning, a ceremony is held at the Taipei Confucius Temple. Musicians play old instruments. Young dancers move slowly in rows while holding feathers and flutes. Officials offer gifts and bow. This ceremony follows steps that are many centuries old.

Around the country, students thank their teachers with cards and flowers. Other places mark the day too. Qufu holds a large celebration each fall. China keeps its own Teachers’ Day on September 10.

Some temples belong to Daoism. Daoism is a Chinese tradition that follows the Dao, or the Way. Many Daoists honor Laozi, the old teacher linked to a book called the Daodejing. Some honor him as a deity.

Step into a Daoist temple and you may smell incense. Visitors light sticks, hold them up, bow and place them in a large pot. Many are asking for health or blessings for family. Statues of deities sit in the halls.

Daoist priests wear long robes and often keep their hair in a knot. They chant old texts, play instruments and lead ceremonies for festivals, blessings and funerals. For many families, the temple is part of everyday life.

Imagine a test so important that it could change your whole family’s life. In old China, men who wanted government jobs took the civil-service exams. These began around 605 CE and ended in 1905.

The exams tested the classics. These are old, honored books, like the Analects of Confucius. Students spent years memorizing them and writing essays about them. Test-takers sat alone in tiny rooms for days.

Passing brought honor to a whole family and village. Few passed the highest level. So the classics sat at the heart of schooling for about 1,300 years. That is why Confucius’s words spread so widely.

The Analects begins with a question about school. Confucius asks: is it not a joy to learn something and practice it often? He links learning with doing again and again.

Confucius also taught that we can learn from people around us. In Analects, book 7, he says that when he walks with two others, one can surely teach him. He copies their good ways and fixes in himself what is not good.

Students in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam memorized lines like these. Many families today still say Confucius’s ideas shape how much they value school. Others point out that people value learning for many reasons.

Chicago’s Chinatown sits on the South Side, near Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue. A big painted gate stands over Wentworth. Bakeries, restaurants, herb shops and bookstores line the streets.

Families live, work and go to school here. There are churches, temples and family associations. Many families have lived in Chicago for generations. Others arrived more recently.

Each Lunar New Year, a parade fills Wentworth Avenue. Lion dancers, dragon dancers, drummers and marching bands take part. Thousands of people come to watch, from the neighborhood and from across Illinois.

Ask ten Chinese American families about religion and you may hear ten answers. One family goes to a Christian church on Sunday. Another visits a Buddhist temple. Another keeps an ancestor shelf at home.

In China, people often speak of the three teachings: Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist. Many people draw on more than one. A family might honor ancestors in a Confucian way and visit a Daoist temple for a blessing.

Some families say they have no religion but still keep Qingming and New Year. Scholars even debate whether Confucianism is a religion. Some call it a way of life. The best way to learn is to listen to each family.

Temples welcome visitors, but they are places of worship. People may be praying or making offerings. A respectful visitor speaks softly and walks around people who are bowing.

It helps to ask before you take photos, especially of people or altars. Do not touch statues or offerings. If you are not sure what to do, watch quietly or ask a helper at the temple.

At a parade or festival, you can clap, cheer and enjoy the food. Learning a greeting, like "Happy New Year," shows care. Visitors do not have to join any ceremony. Watching with respect is enough.