Directory_and_Chronicle_1932 — Page 45

CHINESE FESTIVALS AND OBSERVANCES IN 1932

XXXVII

1932

Sin-wi

Jan.

6

XI. Moon

29

Slight Cold.

XII. Moon

21

14

Great Cold.

28

21

Feb. 5

29

Yam-sin

I. Moon 1

6

20 Mar. 6

15

30

21

Apr, 5

20

Birthday of Celestial Dragon. Beginning of Spring.

Chinese New Year's Day.

Feast of Lanterns, Fête of Shang-yuen, ruler of heaven. Coming of Rain. Excited Insects.

II. Moon 15 Vernal Equinox.

30

Tsing-ming or Tomb Festival; on this day people worship at their

ancestors' graves.

III Moon 15 Corn Rain.

May 6 IV. Moon 1 Beginning of Summer.

16

21

11 16

Anniversary of Death of Confucius.

Small Fullness.

June 6 V. Moon 3 Sprouting Seeds.

8

18

5

15

21

18

National fête day. Dragon boat festival and boat races." Anniversary of the Formation of Heaven and Earth. Summer Solstice.

July 7 VI. Moon 4 Slight Heat.

9

23

6 20

Feast of Heavenly Gifts. Great Heat.

Aug. 1 VII. Moon 1 First day of the seventh moon.

00

16

7

15

23

22

Sept. 8

8

15

15

23

23

27

27

VIII. Moon,

During this moon is held the festival of all souls, when Buddhist and Tauist priests read masses to release souls from purgatory, scatter rice to feed starving ghosts, recite magic incantations accompanied by finger play imitating mystic Sanskrit characters which are supposed to comfort souls in purgatory, burn paper clothes for the benefit of the souls of the drowned, and visit family shrines to pray on behalf of the deceased members of the family. Exhibitions of groups of statuettes, dwarf plants, silk festoons, and ancestral tablets are combined with these ceremonies which are enlivened by music and fireworks.

Fête of the seven goddesses of the Pleiades, worshipped by women.

Beginning of Autumn.

Fête of Chung Yuen, god of the element earth. Spirits' Festival. Stopping of Heat.

White Dew.

National fête day. Worship of the moon, and Feast of Lanterns. Autumnal Equinox.

Fête of Confucius (born 552 B.C.), the founder of Chinese ethics and politics.

Oct. 8 IX. Moon 9 Chung Yang Festival, kite-flying day; people on this day worship at their

ancestors' graves and ascend mountains for pleasure. Cold Dew. Frost Descent.

24

25

Nov 8 X. Moon 11 Beginning of Winter.

12

22

15 25

Fête day of Ha Yuen, the god of water. Slight Snow.

Dec. 7 XI. Moon 10 Great Snow,

22

25

Winter Solstice.

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