1. Spring Festival
Spring Festival marks the New Year in the lunar calendar and lasts from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. As the clock strikes midnight on the last day of the lunar year, the air explodes with firecrackers signaling a farewell to the previous year and welcoming the new one. On the second day, family members exchange New Year's greetings and gifts, visiting each other's homes. The 15th day is second climax on the season and is known as the Lantern Festival. On the 16th day, temple fairs are held in the rural areas.
2. Chunshe (spring Ceremony)
Chunshe marks the 2nd day of the second lunar month. Rural residents spend the holiday preparing a feast of chicken and duck dishes and praying for good weather for the growing season and a bountiful harvest.
3. Qingming (Pure Brightness).
The Pure Brightness Festival is held on the 5th day of the third lunar month. Family members visit gravesites to pay their respects to their ancestors and to sweep the grave. They bring food and wine to the grave, particularly colorful sticky rice cakes. Also on this day, school children are organized to pay their respects to revolutionary martyrs.
4. Ciba Festival.
On the 8th day of the fourth lunar month, people eat a glutinous rice cake cooked in the leaves of a wild tree. During the festival, people are busy picking leaves in the mountains and cooking the Ciba. Some believe the food is a cure for certain ailments.
5. Duanwu Festlval.
On the 5th day of the fifth lunar month, people eat the Zongzi, a pyramid shaped cake of glutinous rice wrapped in reed leaves. The festival normally features dragon boat races, with the winning team being awarded a roast pig.
6. Tasting Fresh Food
On the 6 th day of the six lunar month, people prepare dishes from the newly harvested rice. The weather is warm by the lunar six month, and people air their winter clothing in the sunshine before storing it for the summer.
7. Zhongyuan Festival
On the 14 th day of the seventh lunar month, people honor their ancestors by presenting their grave site with dishes of chicken and duck and paper items representing dally-use items and money.
8. Mid-autumn Festival.
On the evening of the full moon during the eighth lunar month, the family will reunite to enjoy the bright full moon and eat moon cakes and fruit.
9. Chongyang Festival.
On the 9 th day of the ninth lunar month, people enjoy hiking in the mountains and having a picnic with friends.
10. Hanyi Festival.
On the 10th day of the tenth lunar month, people prepare food and wine for the dead. They produce paper-made clothing and bum their offerings at the gravesites. Their offerings are thought to rise with the smoke into the after world.
11. Dongzhi Festival (Mid-winter Festival).
During the full moon of the 11 th lunar month, people in Nanning celebrate the arrival of winter by preparing delicacies, such as Tangyuan dumb lings, made of glutinous rice flour served in soup and Zongzi made of glutinous rice and meat.
12. The Zaowang (Kitchen God) Festival.
On the 23 rd day of the 12 th lunar month, the people living in rural areas clean out or rebuild their kitchen stoves. It is believed that on this day the kitchen god will return to heaven to report on the goings-on in the household. So residents prepare food and wine to please the god.
On the 30th day of the 12th lunar month, people stay up all night eating and celebrating, anticipating the arrival of the New Year.