Chinese scholars have reiterated their belief that more traditional Chinese festivals, such as the
Dragon Boat Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day, should be made public
holidays.
"The current holiday system does not accord with the
long-standing customs of Chinese people," Liu Quili, President of
the Chinese Folklore Society, said at the 3rd Dongyue Symposium
hosted by the Chinese Folklore Society and Beijing Folklore
Museum.
At present, China has three weeklong holidays each year - the
International Labor's Day holiday, the National Day holiday and the
Spring Festival holiday. The latter is the only holiday that ties
in with China's traditional customs.
"Golden weeks for the International Labor's Day and National Day
lack any specific cultural ties and are unhelpful to the protection
of traditional culture since people usually choose to relax by
shopping or traveling," Liu said. Many festivals, considered
important days on China's Lunar Calendar, such as New Year's Eve,
Mid-Autumn Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day, on which people pay their
respects to their ancestors, are not celebrated and the customs are
not commonly commemorated in cities as people have to work.
"For example, since Tomb-Sweeping Day is not a legal holiday,
people have to rush the process of sweeping the tombs to pay their
respects to their ancestors," Liu said. Huang Tao, an associate
professor of the People's University of China, said the most
effective measures to protect cultural festivals were to make the
traditional festivals legal holidays to enable more people to
understand the importance of tradition.
Cai Jiming, a member of Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC), also suggested in detail that China should
shorten the seven-day International Labour's Day and National Day
to five days, and distribute the days to celebrate four traditional
festivals of the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Day,
Tomb-Sweeping Day, and New Year's Eve.
A survey on Sina.com revealed that over 98 percent of netizens
called for New Year's Eve to be made a legal holiday. Feng
Shiliang, another CPPCC member, said he would lodge a formal
proposal for this holiday change during the fifth session of the
10th CPPCC starting from March. 3.
(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2007)