Observing the Traditional Chinese Festival in San Francisco Chinatown

It’s well known that China, a civilization of more than five thousand years, has many traditional festivals. What cultural and historic significance these festivals bear and how Chinese people observe these festivals have stimulated the interest of many people. In the city of San Francisco, you will gain a general idea by joining in the celebration of these festivals in Chinatown. Let’s just take Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Autumn Moon Festival, three most important annual festivals for example.

Chinese New Year is observed on the first day of a year by lunar calendar. It is also known as Spring Festival for it reminds people of the approaching of spring. A month prior to this day, the Chinatown shops and stores begin selling couplets, pictures and all kinds of drawings. Delicious food, fresh flowers and the color red are very popular on this day while the adults will give out envelops of “lucky” money. On the streets of Chinatown, lion dances and dragon parades will last for a fortnight and always attract many spectators.

Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day of the fifth month of lunar calendar in honor of an ancient Chinese scholar and patriot named Qu Yuan. In San Francisco Chinatown, the most thrilling thing about this day is not Zongzi, a kind of Chinese rice-pudding, but the dragon boat race, in which nearly 100 teams of paddlers will compete with each other on Treasure Island. The dragon-shaped boats also are elaborately decorated as people do with them in China.

Autumn Moon Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month according to ancient Chinese calendar, roughly the mid-September. All kinds of moon cakes will be on the market of Chinatown on this day, which carry the homesickness of those far away from home and relatives. People in America always take it as a kind of “Chinese Thanksgiving”, expressing thanks for the summer harvest with abundant food.