{"id":21494,"date":"2026-11-01T18:14:06","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/?p=21494"},"modified":"2026-11-01T18:41:18","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:41:18","slug":"chinese-festivals-shangsi-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/?p=21494","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Festivals – Shangsi Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"Shangsi Festival<\/strong><\/span>

The Ancient Spring Rite of Purification and Renewal – Inspired by the concept of “floating cups along winding streams,” the Shangsi Festival is depicted through scenes of Jiangnan gardens, streams, tea ceremonies, calligraphy, and spring gatherings, showcasing the poetic lifestyle in traditional Chinese culture. Celebrated on the third day of the third lunar month, the Shangsi Festival (also known as the Double Third Festival) is one of China’s most ancient holidays, rooted in rituals of purification and the welcoming of spring. Historically, people would gather by riversides to perform sacrificial ceremonies honoring ancestors, then bathe in herb-infused waters to cleanse away misfortune and disease, a practice described in the ancient Book of Songs. The festival is also traditionally regarded as the possible birthday of the Yellow Emperor, with the saying “San yue san, Xuan Yuan sheng” linking the date to the mythical ancestor of the Chinese people.<\/p>\n

Over centuries, the festival evolved into a refined occasion for spring outings and scholarly pursuits, most famously immortalized by calligrapher Wang Xizhi’s Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion, which describes literati floating wine cups along a winding stream and composing poetry. In modern times, the festival has seen a cultural revival, particularly as a celebration of traditional Hanfu (Chinese national costume) – since 2018, the date has been designated as China Huafu Day. In regions like Guangxi, the same date is celebrated as Sanyuesan, a vibrant ethnic festival featuring antiphonal singing, bamboo pole dances, and five-color glutinous rice, recognized as national intangible cultural heritage. Ultimately, Shangsi embodies a timeless embrace of spring’s vitality, blending ancient cleansing rites with joyous community celebration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/span>\n\n\n\n\n
\nTraditional Chinese festivals are a cyclical rhythm woven into the fabric of life, intimately connected to the agricultural seasons, ancestral reverence, and the emotional bonds of family and community. Most festivals follow the lunar calendar, and their dates shift within the Gregorian year, yet their core remains unchanged: the Spring Festival celebrates reunion and renewal, Qingming balances mourning with the vitality of spring, the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates loyalty and community, and the Mid-Autumn Festival extols completeness and gratitude.<\/p>\n

Beyond these major celebrations, festivals such as the Double Ninth, Winter Solstice, and Xiaonian each carry their own unique rituals and emotional tones, collectively forming a cultural map that spans the entire year. Through food, ritual, and storytelling, these festivals pass down values from generation to generation – respect for ancestors, cherishing of loved ones, awe of nature, and hope for the future. For anyone seeking to understand Chinese culture, festivals are the most vivid and heartfelt entry point.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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14 festivals arranged in chronological order according to the lunar calendar (with the Winter Solstice noted by its solar calendar timing, as it is a solar term rather than a lunar date). This order follows the traditional Chinese festival cycle from the start of the lunar year through to its end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>\nFestival<\/th>\nLunar Date (or Solar)<\/th>\nSeason<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nChinese Lunar New Year<\/td>\n1st day, 1st lunar month<\/td>\nEarly Spring<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nLantern Festival<\/td>\n15th day, 1st lunar month<\/td>\nEarly Spring<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nDragon Heads-Raising Day<\/td>\n2nd day, 2nd lunar month<\/td>\nSpring<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nShangsi Festival<\/td>\n3rd day, 3rd lunar month<\/td>\nSpring<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nQingming Festival<\/td>\nAround April 4\u20136 (solar term)<\/td>\nSpring<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nDragon Boat Festival<\/td>\n5th day, 5th lunar month<\/td>\nEarly Summer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nQixi Festival<\/td>\n7th day, 7th lunar month<\/td>\nLate Summer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nZhongyuan Festival<\/td>\n15th day, 7th lunar month<\/td>\nLate Summer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nMid-Autumn Festival<\/td>\n15th day, 8th lunar month<\/td>\nAutumn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nDouble Ninth Festival (Chongyang)<\/td>\n9th day, 9th lunar month<\/td>\nAutumn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\nCold Clothes Festival<\/td>\n1st day, 10th lunar month<\/td>\nLate Autumn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\nWinter Solstice<\/td>\nAround December 21\u201323 (solar term)<\/td>\nEarly Winter<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\nLaba Festival<\/td>\n8th day, 12th lunar month<\/td>\nDeep Winter<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\nXiaonian (Little New Year)<\/td>\n23rd or 24th day, 12th lunar month<\/td>\nDeep Winter<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Notes:<\/em>
\n– Qingming and Winter Solstice are solar terms rather than lunar dates, so their positions are fixed within the Gregorian calendar year (early April and late December respectively). They naturally fall into the sequence as shown.
\n– Xiaonian is placed last because it occurs at the very end of the lunar year, serving as the immediate prelude to the next Chinese Lunar New Year – which conveniently brings the cycle full circle.
\n– This ordering reflects the traditional rhythm of the Chinese festival year, moving from the joy and renewal of spring, through the warmth of summer and the gratitude of autumn, into the solemnity and preparation of winter.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n\u00a0Sky Division & Logios'Logios' represents an AI entity, helping with data, stats, knowledge, words, calculations, helping human creator in exploring and developing content. 'Logios' sometimes can be a single AI-platform, or many of them. If a code-script is used somewhere then credits for assistance belong exclusively to DeepSeek AI<\/em>.\r\n\r\nLogios<\/em> - from the Greek \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 (l\u00f3gios), meaning \"learned, eloquent, one who speaks with reason\".<\/span><\/span>, 2026<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traditional Chinese festivals are a cyclical rhythm woven into the fabric of life, intimately connected to the agricultural seasons, ancestral reverence, and the emotional bonds of family and community. Most festivals follow the lunar calendar, and their dates shift within… Lexo →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letrat.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}