Just like everyone around the world who has a job or goes to school, Chinese people love their holidays. Whether you go travelling somewhere fancy or just loaf around at home, Chinese holidays are meant to be spent doing fun things with family and friends.
However, Chinese holidays are different than holidays in the West, and the system works differently as well. Besides having different holidays with different traditions, the Chinese holiday system can at times be frustrating for those who like to plan our vacations well in advance. What do I mean by that?
The Chinese holiday system works differently than the West
In the West, if there is a week where we have a holiday (like Christmas or New Years Day), we will usually only need to work or go to school four days that week, and we get the weekend off. This has been a normal fact of western society for as long as I can remember.
Chinese holidays work a little differently. If a public holiday in China falls neither on a Monday or a Friday, everyone is forced to work one weekend day to “make up” for the holiday falling in the middle of the week.
Wait… how does that work?
For example, in 2019, New Year’s Day falls on a Tuesday. Nominally, New Year’s is a “three-day” holiday, but technically it’s only a one-day holiday.
How does the government make it three days long? The government will try to “connect” the holiday to the closest weekend so you will have three continuous days off.
So, since New Year’s Day falls on a Tuesday, and the closest weekend day is Sunday, they will include Monday in the holiday as well and tell everyone they get Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off (three days in a row!)
BUT, since the government “gave” you a weekday (Monday), they’ll have to subtract it from one of your weekend days. That means that you will have to go to work on the Saturday before the holiday. Make sense?
This is particularly interesting when a “three-day” holiday falls on a Wednesday. Since Wednesday is in the middle of the week and is two days away from both Sunday and Saturday, the government will “give” you two weekdays off, but because of that, you’ll have to work both weekend days! How do you like the system now?
Here’s a quick illustration of how that works:
Golden Weeks
In addition, there are two so-called “Golden Weeks” where you will get a continuous seven days off. Golden Weeks occur on the Spring Festival and on the National Day holiday. Each holiday is technically 3 days long and runs into the weekend, plus the government will give you an extra two weekdays off (for a total of seven continuous days off). However, just like any other holiday, those two extra weekdays will need to be made up by working two weekend days! To paraphrase an old saying, there’s no such thing as a free holiday in China.
What are the major public Chinese holidays?
If you’re working or teaching in China like I am, you’re going to want to know when the major Chinese holidays are so you can make plans well ahead of time! There are 7 public holidays in total where everyone gets the day off. Since some Chinese holidays follow the Lunar Calendar (e.g Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New Year), these holidays will fall on different days every year. As a consequence, the Chinese government doesn’t release the official holiday schedule for the next year until late in the fall season. Other holidays have dates fixed to the Gregorian calendar.
So, which holidays do you get to spend away from the stresses of work, on a beach in sunny Thailand? Here’s a list of the holidays for which you will get time off!
The 7 official Chinese holidays (no work!)
New Year’s Day (Yuandan)
Falling on January 1st, everyone will usually get one day off for New Year’s in China. The Chinese name, Yuandan, means “first day”, marking it as the first day of the New Year. On New Year’s Eve, Chinese people will often have dinner with friends, family, or coworkers, marked by lots of eating, drinking, and being merry. For more westernized households, there might be a countdown as well. Younger, more westernized people in bigger cities will often seek out New Year’s Eve parties and celebrate just like in the West.
2019 date: December 30th – January 1st (Sunday – Tuesday, work Saturday December 29th)
Chinese New Year (Spring Festival)
Known as “Chinese New Year” in the west and “Spring Festival” within China, this holiday is the biggest and most important holiday of the entire year. Spring Festival is marked by people getting together with their extended families for a big feast, exchanging red envelopes with money inside, and setting off firecrackers in front of their doors to ward off demons. Officially it’s a 3-day holiday, but most companies will give you a full week off (you’ll have to make up those days on the weekend, however).
Since most workers in big cities are actually not from the city itself, Spring Festival is noted for its mass migration of people back to their families’ hometowns to celebrate the holiday. As such, laborers in the cities will save up money to buy tickets for planes, trains, and buses, which can be snatched up in a matter of moments once going on sale. Since this is such an important Chinese holiday, not being able to get back home to see your family can be crushing. People have even resorted to hitchhiking or cycling thousands of kilometres in the cold just to get home.
Trying to travel within China around this time can give you a huge headache. I remember travelling during the Spring Festival in my first year in China, and on the day I wanted to go back, all train tickets were sold out! I had to spend the night in a fast food restaurant waiting for the first train back in the morning.
I highly recommend jetsetting off to another country, preferably a sun-drenched one as Spring Festival falls in the middle of winter. In addition, if you work in a public school, you will get a minimum of three weeks off for this holiday, as a sort of winter break. In some cases, you might even get up to 7 weeks off! Fingers crossed!
2019 date: February 4th – 10th (Monday – Saturday, work Saturday and Sunday February 2nd – 3rd)
Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Festival)
Tomb Sweeping Day is a 3-day holiday and is a day in which Chinese people honour their deceased ancestors. They will make a trip to their ancestors’ gravesites, clean their tombs, and give them ritual food offerings as well as burn joss sticks and joss paper. Some will even burn fake money or pictures of cars, to make sure their ancestors will be rich well into the afterlife.
On this Chinese holiday, people often eat something called qingtuan (青团), which are round green dessert dumplings only available around Tomb Sweeping Day. They are made of glutinous rice and Chinese mugwort or barley grass (giving them a distinctive green colour) and contain a sweet filling of red bean paste.
For foreigners, Tomb Sweeping Day is just another holiday to either relax or go on a short trip to a nearby city or town. If you live in Guangdong like I do, you could even cross the border into Hong Kong for a quick shopping spree.
2019 date: April 5th – 7th (Friday – Sunday)
Labour Day (May Day)
Labour Day, like in the West, celebrates the contributions of workers. Unlike in North America where Labour Day is celebrated on the first Monday of September, Labour Day in many countries of the world is celebrated on May 1st, including China.
China will get three days off for Labor Day, and for most people, it’s simply a holiday where people spend time with their families or go on short outings to popular tourist spots. So enjoy the days off! You’ve worked hard for it!
2019 date: May 1st – 4th (Wednesday – Saturday, work Sunday April 28th and Sunday May 5)
Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon Boat Festival is a three-day holiday celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which makes it fall sometime between late May and mid-June in the Gregorian calendar. This is a fun holiday, as dragon boat races take place across the country and people eat zongzi, sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves.
This is a holiday steeped in legend. Legend has it a man named Qu Yuan was a poet and minister in the state of Chu. When the Chu king proposed an alliance with the state of Qin, Qu opposed this and was banished. When Qu saw the fall of his capital at the hands of Qin, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo river.
Because the townsfolk admired Qu, they went into the river in long dragon boats and raced to find his body. Finding no trace of his body, and fearing the fish would devour it, the people threw zongzi into the river, hoping the fish would find them tastier than Qu’s corpse.
Thus began the tradition of dragon boat races and zongzi. If you get the chance, make sure to go out and see one of the races. The packed crowds will be bursting with energy!
Or, if dragon boat racing isn’t your thing, try learning how to make zongzi. It may look difficult, but you’ll get the hang of it after a few tries!
2019 date: June 7th – 9th (Friday – Sunday)
Mid-Autumn Festival (Mooncake Festival)
Mid-Autumn Festival is a one-day holiday that falls in… you guessed it! The middle of autumn. It’s basically China’s harvest festival and is celebrated on a full moon day in mid- to late September.
The beauty of the full moon may have been the inspiration for mooncakes, a traditional Chinese dessert eaten on this day. It’s a round-shaped cake (like the moon) traditionally filled with sweet red bean or lotus paste and may also contain salted duck egg yolks or some sort of nuts.
Personally, I’m not a huge fan, but they are so popular that you will inevitably receive a box of them as a gift from someone. They have become almost like the Christmas fruitcake of China, where people who don’t like them will re-gift them to someone else. As a result of their popularity, high-end mooncakes have started being produced and they now come in a sweeping variety of flavours, including modern flavours like Oreo, mango, or matcha, and Haagen Daaz has even taken it upon themselves to make ice cream mooncakes.
The current trend is if you want to show your appreciation to someone, whether it be your boss, friends, or business partners, buy them a box of nice mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival. Be careful as prices can be a little steep, ranging from 200 – 500 RMB ($29 – 73 US)!
2019 date: September 13th (Friday)
National Day
National Day in China celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1st, 1949. As with other “independence” holidays around the world, there will be fireworks, parades, and people just generally being proud of their country on this day (even though they may not be as proud on other days).
Being the second “Golden Week” of the year, you will get seven continuous days off (but will need to make up two weekend days at some point). Unlike the Chinese New Year Golden Week where people travel home to see their extended families, the National Day Golden Week is a time for travelling abroad. Many people will travel to nearby countries like Japan and South Korea specifically to go shopping. Thus, many East Asian brand-name companies will see a huge increase in sales during this week just from Chinese tourists alone. I really noticed the throngs of Chinese tourists on my trip to Tokyo a few years back.
Though many people also like to travel within China during this week, I would recommend not doing so as many other people have the same idea and you could end up not returning on schedule. Your best bet is to go abroad, and with so many awesome countries in Asia, why not? How about exploring Thailand or Japan?
2019 date: October 1st – 7th (Tuesday – Monday, work Sunday September 29th and Saturday October 12th)
Should I travel on Chinese holidays?
If you have the time and money, go for it! I personally wouldn’t travel within China on any of them simply because dealing with monstrous crowds of people is not my forte.
Still, travelling abroad is not that expensive. There are plenty of small cities or islands in Southeast Asia that are just a short, cheap plane ride away. Singapore, Bali, Hanoi, or Taipei are good for short holidays, while longer ones can be spent island hopping across the Philippines or Thailand.
It doesn’t matter where you choose to go, the most important thing is that you go! Holidays were made to get away from the stresses of work and life, of which there are plenty in China. Chinese holidays are meant as a way to recharge your mind and spirit, so when you return to China after a week-long journey in Sri Lanka, you will be able to remain mentally sound until the next holiday.
Happy (Chinese) holidays!