Chinese Dragon Head-raising Festival is a traditional Chinese festival held on the second day of the second month of the Chinese calendar. It marks the start of spring and farming. Ancient people believed that after this day, rainfall increases because the rain-bringing Dragon King has woken up from his winter sleep. In ancient times, farming highly depended on the weather. Proper rainfall and plenty of sunlight were necessary for a good harvest at the end of the year. The Chinese dragon, besides a symbol of good luck and great power, is also the god managing weather and water. So Dragon Head-raising Day is about honoring the Chinese dragon and praying for good weather in spring.

The festival celebrates ancient agrarian(农耕的) Chinese culture, and while some of traditional ways to celebrate it are no longer practiced, others persist.

The most famous tradition is getting a haircut. A saying warns that cutting your hair in the first month will cause your uncle to die. Although today few pay attention to it, it was once a tradition for people to line up outside barber shops this day after they avoided haircuts for the preceding(前面的)month.

Today Chinese Dragon Head-raising Day is celebrated in many different ways, most of which are still similar to those practiced in the ancient times, including eating spring pancakes and noodles. People eat tofu balls in East China’s Fujian Province during the festival while fried beans are the traditional festival food for people in parts of Shandong Province. Food eaten on this day also gets a lucky name. For example, noodles are “dragon’s beard” and dumplings are “dragon’s ears”.

Most cultures have a festival of light. Each culture celebrates this festival in a different way. There is one thing that is the same, however, and this is the wish for peace and happiness in the world.

The Jewish Festival of Light is called Hanukkah. Hanukkah usually takes place in December. The story of why Hanukkah is celebrated is very old. It is told that a very long time ago, Jewish people called the Macabees were at war with a country called Syria. On the day that the Macabees won the war, they cleaned up their holy place, which is called a temple, because the Syrian people had been living there. They wanted to light their holy lamps to say thank you for the end of the war, but found only a very small amount of oil left over to do that. The Macabees lit the lamps anyway, thinking that they would soon go out. The lamps kept burning for eight days! The Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah every year by lighting a candlestick that has eight candleholders. Every night a new candle is lit so that on the eighth night, all eight candles stand together. Presents are given at this time and money is given to the poor.

Lanterns are another form of light. In China, lanterns are famous works of art. The Lantern Festival goes back more than 2,000 years to the Qin Dynasty. It takes place on the 15^th day of the Chinese New Year, bringing the New Year season to a close. During the festival, parks become a sea of lanterns. Sometimes streets are blocked off and lanterns are put down on each side to make a hallway of lanterns. People also hang lanterns in their gardens, outside their houses or on boats. The lanterns are made in many shapes, sizes and colours. They are usually made from silk, paper and plastic. Some are even made from ice. It is believed that these lanterns will guide visitors and the spirits of ancestors to the celebrations. The Lantern Festival is a time for families, young and old to spend together. Every New Year the wish is the same—peace and happiness to all.

In Vanuatu, this marathon cultural festival has brought thousands of people together. Although it is one of the Pacific’s biggest cultural festivals, there is no specific date for Nekowiar, a big event of colour and culture that is a true test of one’s endurance (忍耐力), bringing together thousands of people from some of the most faraway villages on the Vanuatu island of Tanna.

Nekowiar, which takes months to prepare, is traditionally held every few years, but it has been eight years since the last one in 2012. No one knows when or where the next celebration will happen. This isn’t an event for tourists though. Nekowiar has been called a peace-building exercise between warring tribes (部落), and a chance for families to arrange marriages.

At this year’s festival, hundreds of women and girls started the event by singing and dancing a traditional Napen from nightfall to sunrise. They only took breaks when they were too tired to continue. They had trained for months for this.

The movements were so powerful that dust(灰尘) rose from the dancers’ feet. Most of the dancers painted their faces in bright colourful designs that held special importance to their tribes.

In the early hours of the third day, the men, teenagers and even young boys had their turn in a dance called Toka. Jimmy Kawiel performed the dance for the first lime this year, "You need more energy for Toka," Mr. Kawiel said. "We’ve been practising for five to six months. It is a very big thing for us, especially when things are developing so fast and we are in danger of losing our culture.”

Jean Pascal Wahe, from the Tafea Cultural Centre on Tanna, said the festival was first held as a reconciliation (和好) event between warring tribes. All the different communities came together to find a way to stop all these wars.