On the New Year's Eve ,most families watch Spring Festival Gala on television,people work far away from home will manage to come back, regardless of long-distance travel, so the "Grand Dinner on New Year's Eve" is also called "Family Reunion Dinner". Whatever the financial condition is, every family will make the dinner the most sumptuous（豪华的） and ceremonious（隆重的 ）one in the year. At twelve o'clock, when a new year drives off the old, every family will shoot off firecrackers to greet new days and send off old ones.
Besides, the festival has also been marked by eating zong zi (glutinous rice). Zong zi is made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. People who mourned the death of Qu threw Zong zi into the river to feed his ghost every year.
According to history records, the Spring Festival derives from god and ancestor worships in the Shang dynasty. Nowadays, this superstitious meaning has faded away and is replaced with a symbol of unification（统一）, happiness and hope.
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The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival or Double Fifth Festivel, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar. This festival is to commemorate the death of QU Yuan, an upright and honest poet and statesman who is said to have committed suicide by drowning himself into a river.
Cultural notes
Zodiac animals(十二生肖): 12 animals represent the
rotating（循环 ）12-year cycle.
Oral practice
Picture Description
Describe the following pictures according to the sample given below. Some useful words and phrases are given to you in the Information Box for reference.
Information Box
Dragon Boat Festival 端午节 The fifth day of the fifth lunar month 农历五月初五 patrioat races 龙舟赛 Zongzi 粽子 glutinous rice 黏米 wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves 用竹叶或芦苇叶包裹 food for fish and shrimp to keep them from eating Qu Yuan’s
Festivals and Customs
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Cultural notes
Temple fair(庙会): The temple fair began as groups of
vendors（小贩） who did business near temples when many pilgrims（朝圣者 ）came to pay tribute to the gods during traditional festivals. The practice grew, gradually turning into a regular event. The fairs have lots of games to play, food to eat, performances and lots of people. You can taste numerous kinds of snacks, court food and other dishes.
Information Box
Spring Festival 春节 lunar new year农历新年
paper-cuts 剪纸
feast 盛宴
spring couplets春联 set off firecrackers放鞭炮
Spring Festival Gala 春晚
make jiaozi 包饺子
Spring Festival, the traditional Chinese New Year’s Day, is China’s most important national holiday. The date is the first day of the lunar new year. Before Spring Festival, people will clean their houses, decorate them with paper-cuts, shop for special Spring Festival foods and gifts, and begin preparing the New Year’s feast. On the day before New Year’s Day, many families decorate their front doors with red couplets to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere. Children set off firecrackers while their parents keep busy preparing the New Year’s Eve dinner and making jiaozi.
With the changes of the times, the memorial turns to be a time for protection from evil and disease for the rest of year. People will hang healthy herbs on the front door to clear the bad luck of the house. Although the significance of the festival might be different with the past, it still gives the observer an opportunity to glimpse a part of the rich Chinese cultural heritage.
Tomb Sweeping Day, also called "Cold Food Day", is the most important day for people to offer sacrifice to ancestors. It started from the Zhou Dynasty, with a history of over 2500 years. Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms in China, indicating the coming of late spring, thus the best plowing and growing time, while "Cold Food Day" is a day when folks sweep the ancestors' tombs and eat cold food. Qingming was adjacent（临近） to Cold Food Day, so later on they gradually became one festival, and thus "Cold Food" became another name for Qingming, and dusting the tomb and eating cold food turned into the customs of Qing Ming. Qing Ming has evolved into a culture-rich and meaning-deep remembrance day.
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Tomb Sweeping Day 清明节 between April 4-6 ancestral graves 祖坟 fly kites 放风筝 a memorial day 纪念日 martyr 烈士 public cemetery 公墓 a bouquet of flowers 花束 willow branches 柳枝 express one’s esteem 表达尊敬