Spring Festival & holidays

春节 (Spring Festival / Lunar New Year) is the biggest holiday of the year, centered on the family reunion dinner (年夜饭) on New Year's Eve and roughly two weeks of celebration. Married or older relatives give 红包 (red envelopes of cash) to unmarried juniors and children; homes are cleaned before the new year (but not on the day itself, to avoid 'sweeping out' good luck), red decorations go up, and the world's largest annual human migration (春运) happens as people travel home.

元宵节 (Lantern Festival), fifteen days after New Year, closes out the celebration with tāngyuán (glutinous rice balls) and lanterns. 清明节 (Qingming, Tomb-Sweeping Festival) in early April is for visiting and tending ancestors' graves and burning joss paper. 端午节 (Dragon Boat Festival) in early summer commemorates the poet Qu Yuan with zòngzi (sticky rice dumplings) and dragon boat races. 中秋节 (Mid-Autumn Festival) centers on family reunion, mooncakes, and viewing the full moon; 国庆节 (National Day, October 1st) is a week-long public holiday with a strong patriotic tone.

Each holiday has its own expected greeting and small gift customs — 新年快乐 or 恭喜发财 at Spring Festival, mooncakes for Mid-Autumn — and most of these are also mass public holidays, so transport and tourist sites get extremely crowded around them. On New Year's Day itself, avoid sweeping, using scissors, or arguing, all traditionally considered bad luck to start the year with.