Five kinds
96 of these 125 are set by the lunar calendar, which means the date moves against the calendar on your phone by up to a month from one year to the next. Each entry gives the months it falls in first, and the lunar date after it.
20 of them are community rites rather than public events. A visitor can usually watch, from the edge, and that is a different thing from attending a show. The background is on the festivals page.
25 each
The Five Kinds
| Kind | Events | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Temple Fairs (庙会) | 25 | The fair that fills a temple courtyard and the streets around it at New Year: incense, stalls, opera and food, on ground that is a place of worship the rest of the year. |
| Lantern Festivals (灯会) | 25 | Lit displays over the fifteen days after New Year, from old paper craft in the southern towns to whole parks wired up in the cities. |
| Dragon Boat Races (龙舟) | 25 | Crews race at the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and in the south the boats also carry rites that have nothing to do with the race. |
| Ice and Snow Festivals (冰雪节) | 25 | Built each winter in the northeast and on the plateau, from carved ice cities to the herding and fishing meets that come with them. |
| Flower Fairs (花市) | 25 | The New Year flower market, strongest in the far south, where a branch of peach or a pot of kumquat is what a household buys before the year turns. |
Being There on the Day
Most of these move against the calendar on your phone, and the date is only fixed once the lunar year is set. Tell our local team your travel dates and they will say which of these fall inside them, and which are rites where a visitor stands at the edge rather than in the middle.