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You might have seen some weird Chinese traditions in Chinatown, and rituals they perform, and the food they prepared seems not the ordinary food that you seen on Chinese stores.

On every year, usually around January or February, it is the traditional Chinese new year. It doesn’t follow the Calendar we hang in the wall, they have their own calendar according to the ancient Chinese Lunar eclipse. They called it “Lunar Calendar”. On that day, it is the biggest day of the year. People in China usually has a week or more off from work to celebrate this holiday. It is similar to our Christmas days. On that day, family members usually get together and having a wonderful time. For better luck in the coming year, people usually perform lion dance as tradition, as prayer to the prosperity and brighter future in this year. All sort of traditional cuisines were prepared 1 day before for the New Year day.

At the beginning of April, it is the day of Ancestors. Family members usually pick the best day of the week, superstitiously, to get together and go to the cemetery, where their ancestors buried, to pay their annual respects. They usually bring them with a lot of food, such as roasted duck, roasted pork, and miscellaneous. In the cemetery, they burn the paper money (fake, and it is not the real monetary we used every day) for the ancestors. They believe even though their ancestors cease to exist in world, their souls still exist in another dimension. Burning the money and incenses to carry their prayers to their ancestors. It might seems weird to Western visitors, but this culture might had shared in most Asian countries for over 500 years.

On September, it is the moon’s day. People celebrate it by making moon cake, and set up a small altar to pray the Goddess who live at the moon for their prosperity and better luck. Traditionally, there is a beautiful Goddess with white rabbit living up at the Moon. Every year, people make moon cake for her, and pray for her.

There were some Chinese traditional holidays that still exists among them. All of these holidays have a story to tell.

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