Chinese Traditional Festival Winter Solstice

In the Chinese Lunar calendar there are 24 Solar Terms, one of which is Winter Solstice. On this day, the Northern hemisphere experiences the shortest day and the longest night, and according to ancient beliefs it marks the arrival of cold weather.

As the saying goes, Winter Solstice is more important than Spring Festival. The old celebrations include sacrifices to the gods. It is also considered a good time to begin medical treatments. 

Family meal on Winter Solstice

Spring Festival ---the first day of Chinese NEW YEAR

     Here, I will write something about the common traditions of Spring Festival.

Sping Festival(Guangzhou)   Firework(广州春节焰火)

     The 23rd day (Jan. 26th) of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve (祭灶君).On this day, people offer a sacrifice to Zaojun (灶君), the kitchen god. The next day, Zaojun returns to heaven and reports to the gods and so the more generous the sacrifice, the more clement shall be his report. 

Stone Forest

Stone Forest(石林)

The Stone Forest lies about 80 miles to the southeast of Kunming. A geological phenomenon, the Stone Forest was a vast expanse of sea during
the Paleozoic era--some 270 million years ago. Later, the movement of tectonic plates altered the earth''s crust, causing the sea to recede and its
limestone bottom to appear, thereby forming land. Due to the constant seeping of rain through the cracks in the limestone, some of
the stone formation dissolved and the fissures broadened, producing a group of great sculptures of different shapes, all molded by nature.