The Spring Festival - known in the west as the Chinese New Year - is a traditional Chinese holiday that is celebrated by Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian practitioners alike. The majority of the deities invoked, however, are Taoist: the Jade Emperor, the Kitchen God, Hongjun Laozu, Tianguan.
The Spring Festival proper begins on the new moon and ends on the full moon of the first lunar month, making it a 15-day celebration. The extended Spring Festival, however, actually goes on for a full five weeks: from the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, through the 15th day of the first lunar month of the New Year. As such, it's kind of like the Thanksgiving-Christmas/Solstice-New Year period in the United States: several different celebrations that tend to flow one-into-the-other.
Here's an illustrated tour through the highlights of the Spring Festival: its monsters and deities, red lanterns and gold ignots, lion dances and rice porridge and more. Enjoy!
- Graphic Index
- Text Index
