FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS
Festivals and celebrations of all kinds have been held everywhere since ancient times. Most ancient festivals would celebrate the end of cold weather, planting in spring and harvest in autumn.
Festivals of the Dead
Some festivals are held to honour the dead or to satisfy the ancestors, who might return either to help or to do harm. For the Japanese festival Obon, people should go to clean graves and light incense in memory of their ancestors. The Western holiday Halloween is now a children’s festival, when they can dress up and go to their neighbors’ homes to ask for sweets.
Festivals to Honour People
Harvest and Thanksgiving festivals can be very happy events. People are grateful because their food is gathered for the winter. China and Japan have mid-autumn festivals, when people admire the moon and in China, enjoy moon-cakes.
Spring Festivals
The most energetic and important festivals are the ones that look forward to the end of winter and the coming of spring.
People love to get together to eat, drink and have fun with each other. Festivals let us enjoy life, be proud of our customs and forget our work for a little while.
| A．Harvest Festivals. |
| B．Traditional Festivals. |
| C．They offer food, flowers and gifts to the dead. |
| D．Festivals can also be held to honour famous people. |
| E．If the neighbors do not give any sweets, the children might play a trick on them. |
| F．During the Spring Festival in China, people eat dumplings and may give children lucky money in red paper. |
| G．Today’s festivals have many origins: some are religious, some seasonal, and some for special people or events. |
