Tang statutes recognized 28 holidays for which the government granted a total of 58 days of leave to all mandarins throughout the empire. The rest of society—peasants, merchants, and artisans—also celebrated festivals, although probably with less time off. Regulations provided officials with one day off every 10 days (a Tang week). In addition, the state gave its high-ranking employees 15 days off in the fifth moon as a "farming holiday" and another 15 days in the ninth moon as a "holiday for the bestowal of robes." In all of those instances, government offices closed, permitting their personnel to spend their free time at home or in places of amusement. Finally, there were irregular vacations granted to officials individually, including the following: 30 days off every three years for a visit to their parents, if they lived more than 1,000 miles away, or 15 days, if they lived more than 167 miles away (travel time not included); 9 days for the wedding of a son or daughter, and 5, 3, or 1 day for the nuptials of other close relatives (travel time not included); and 3 days for a son's capping (manhood) rite or 1 for another close kinsman's ceremony.
In addition to these holidays, there were two sorts of festivals in Tang China. The first were solar, such as the summer and winter solstices. The second and more numerous were lunar and often fell on double digits such as the third day of the third moon. (Because it is the convention to refer to the 12 divisions of the year in the solar calendar as months, the term moons is used here to designate the 12 divisions of the lunar year.) The lunar calendar began sometime between mid-January and mid-February, the exact date differing from year to year. There was scarcely a moon without festivals to cheer the lives of the people.
The first day of the first moon, also called the day of the chicken, was New Year's, the grandest of all festivals, a holiday of seven days for government officials. It was an occasion for reviewing the omens and disasters or blessings of the preceding year, for displaying the tribute submitted by prefectures and foreign nations, and for the presentation of candidates whom provincial governors had recommended for national examinations in the capitals.
Throughout the land, however, New Year's was mostly a private affair celebrated in the home. It was a festival for dispelling evil, to ensure a fortuitous future in the coming year. Householders rose at cockcrow and threw segments of bamboo into fires that they had lit in a courtyard or in front of their houses. When the heat expanded the air captured inside the segments, the bamboo exploded with a loud bang. Folk beliefs maintained that the noise drove away a malicious, one-legged specter that was more than a foot tall, was unafraid of humans, and caused chills and fevers. After the 11th century, firecrackers replaced the bamboo segments. To further protect their abodes, people hung willow branches on their gates to prevent ghosts from entering the premises. Some county officials took extraordinary measures by slaughtering a sheep, hanging its head on a gate, and covering it with a butchered chicken. The sacrifice of the sheep, which ate the sprouts, and the chicken, which ate the seed, would enable crops to grow. On New Year's Day, it was the custom for people to drink an ale called Killing Ghosts and Reviving Souls, into which special herbs had been mixed. Imbibing the brew would ensure that they would not contract any illness in the coming year. They also ate a platter of five bitters—onions, garlic, leeks, and the like—because it fortified their internal organs.
The next festival, the Lantern Festival, was a three-day event, held on the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth days of the first moon. It was the only occasion when the government lifted the curfew so that citizens could freely stroll the streets outside their wards during the night. The Lantern Festival was a festival of light when the moon was full, and patricians sought to outdo each other in providing the grandest lamps.
On the third day of the third moon (double-three), the Chinese celebrated a one-day festival called Lustration. In ancient times, this had been an occasion for repairing to a river and bathing in waters scented with the aromatic orchid plant. It was a rite for dispelling evil and washing away defilement. By the Tang dynasty, the festival had become a time for merrymaking, specifically for drinking ale, feasting, and writing poetry.
The "Cold Food Festival" was so named because custom forbade the lighting of fires for three days and therefore people ate cold food. This was a solar celebration that fell on April 5. On this occasion, people went to the tombs of their ancestors to sweep the tombs, sacrifice to their forebears, and have a picnic. It was also a time for indulging in diversions. Women amused themselves on swings. Palace women as well as new graduates of the civil service examinations played football. Cold Food Festival also had something of the character of Easter in the West because it was the custom in the Tang to dye chicken and duck eggs during this festival.
The fifth day of the fifth moon was an official one-day holiday that commemorated the suicide of a upright statesman in the 3rd century b.c.e. who seized a rock and leaped into a river because his king had banished him for his criticisms. According to folklore, witnesses to the statesman's drowning boarded skiffs and rushed out in a futile attempt to save him. That tradition was apparently the reason for the boat races, now called dragon boat races, during that festival in Tang times. The special food for the fifth day of the fifth moon was a dumpling made of glutinous millet or rice wrapped in leaves and boiled. If it was raining on the fifth day, some people cut a piece of bamboo to make a tube for collecting the "divine water." Then they mixed rain water with the liver of an otter to form a ring that they ate to cure certain illnesses.
The seventh night of the seventh moon was a one-day holiday for officials, celebrating the love affair between the cow herder—the deity of the star Altair in the constellation Aquila—and the weaver maid, the spirit of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra. Separated by the Milky Way, they could cross it only once a year on a bridge of magpies. When they finally met, they consummated their relationship during the evening. The festival was basically for women, who prayed for enhancement of their skills at sewing and weaving.
The All Souls' Feast on the fifteenth day of the seventh moon, developed from the legend of the bodhisattva (savior) Mulian, who found his sinful mother suffering in the purgatory of hungry ghosts. There she starved, because when she put food in her mouth, it changed into burning charcoal. When Mulian informed Buddha, the latter instructed him to make a sumptuous offering, especially of fruit, on the fifteenth day of the seventh moon for monks everywhere. The collective virtue of the clergy was powerful enough to effect the salvation of seven generations of ancestors from hell, from existence as hungry ghosts, and from rebirth as animals. By dint of his effort, Mulian saved his mother. Thereafter, he asked Buddha to make the day a permanent festival, and Buddha agreed. The story became the subject of a sutra translated into Chinese during the third century and was the basis for the custom of the devout laity making offerings to monks. Monasteries took the opportunity of All Souls' Feast to make ostentatious displays of their treasures, probably to attract large numbers of donors. They also gave dramatic performances for the diversion of the crowds.
The mid-autumn festival of the fifteenth day of the eighth moon was a three-day vacation for officials. Today, Chinese call it the Moon Festival. In Tang times, it was an occasion when gentlemen admired the moon during the night, at least when the weather was clear enough to see it. They saw in the moon not an old man but a hare who was hard at work grinding ingredients for an elixir, using a mortar and pestle. (This was a Daoist image, for alchemy was Daoism's special field of endeavor.) Not everyone agreed on what the craters and plains of the lunar surface depicted. Some saw a toad there. The moon was also the site of the ice palace for the moon goddess and her court. Whatever the case, patricians and plebes alike enjoyed the festival. Those who lived in the country, where the curfew did not apply, might repair to a mountain to drink and feast throughout the night.
The ninth day of the ninth moon was another three-day holiday. This was an occasion, like the Cold Food Festival, for picnicking in the countryside, specifically, on a high elevation such as a mountain. Urban dwellers might convene their feasts at the top of a pagoda or at the Serpentine River park in Changan. There was an intimate association between the festival and the chrysanthemum. The plant was thought to promote longevity because it blooms in the autumn and mimics the life-giving sun with its yellow center and white petals. During the Tang, it was the custom to imbibe chrysanthemum-blossom ale during the festivities. The stems and leaves of the plant were gathered on the ninth day of the ninth moon, added to fermenting grains, and allowed to brew for an entire year. Drinking the ale on the festival the following year prolonged one's life.
On the last day of the twelfth moon, the well-to-do invited Buddhist monks or Daoist priests to recite scriptures at their homes. Then they prepared ale and fruit to send the god of the stove on his way. It was that deity's duty to record the sins of the family throughout the year and report them to heaven on the last day of the year. Families hung an image of the god painted on paper above their stoves on New Year's Day, and it remained there all year long, noting all the transgressions committed by the householders. On the eve of the last day of the twelfth moon, the god of the stove left the home and journeyed to the celestial realm. That was not a pleasant thought to families, so they rubbed the dregs of ale on the mouths of their images to get the deity so drunk that he could not make his report to heaven.
In addition to these holidays, there were two sorts of festivals in Tang China. The first were solar, such as the summer and winter solstices. The second and more numerous were lunar and often fell on double digits such as the third day of the third moon. (Because it is the convention to refer to the 12 divisions of the year in the solar calendar as months, the term moons is used here to designate the 12 divisions of the lunar year.) The lunar calendar began sometime between mid-January and mid-February, the exact date differing from year to year. There was scarcely a moon without festivals to cheer the lives of the people.
The first day of the first moon, also called the day of the chicken, was New Year's, the grandest of all festivals, a holiday of seven days for government officials. It was an occasion for reviewing the omens and disasters or blessings of the preceding year, for displaying the tribute submitted by prefectures and foreign nations, and for the presentation of candidates whom provincial governors had recommended for national examinations in the capitals.
Throughout the land, however, New Year's was mostly a private affair celebrated in the home. It was a festival for dispelling evil, to ensure a fortuitous future in the coming year. Householders rose at cockcrow and threw segments of bamboo into fires that they had lit in a courtyard or in front of their houses. When the heat expanded the air captured inside the segments, the bamboo exploded with a loud bang. Folk beliefs maintained that the noise drove away a malicious, one-legged specter that was more than a foot tall, was unafraid of humans, and caused chills and fevers. After the 11th century, firecrackers replaced the bamboo segments. To further protect their abodes, people hung willow branches on their gates to prevent ghosts from entering the premises. Some county officials took extraordinary measures by slaughtering a sheep, hanging its head on a gate, and covering it with a butchered chicken. The sacrifice of the sheep, which ate the sprouts, and the chicken, which ate the seed, would enable crops to grow. On New Year's Day, it was the custom for people to drink an ale called Killing Ghosts and Reviving Souls, into which special herbs had been mixed. Imbibing the brew would ensure that they would not contract any illness in the coming year. They also ate a platter of five bitters—onions, garlic, leeks, and the like—because it fortified their internal organs.
The next festival, the Lantern Festival, was a three-day event, held on the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth days of the first moon. It was the only occasion when the government lifted the curfew so that citizens could freely stroll the streets outside their wards during the night. The Lantern Festival was a festival of light when the moon was full, and patricians sought to outdo each other in providing the grandest lamps.
On the third day of the third moon (double-three), the Chinese celebrated a one-day festival called Lustration. In ancient times, this had been an occasion for repairing to a river and bathing in waters scented with the aromatic orchid plant. It was a rite for dispelling evil and washing away defilement. By the Tang dynasty, the festival had become a time for merrymaking, specifically for drinking ale, feasting, and writing poetry.
The "Cold Food Festival" was so named because custom forbade the lighting of fires for three days and therefore people ate cold food. This was a solar celebration that fell on April 5. On this occasion, people went to the tombs of their ancestors to sweep the tombs, sacrifice to their forebears, and have a picnic. It was also a time for indulging in diversions. Women amused themselves on swings. Palace women as well as new graduates of the civil service examinations played football. Cold Food Festival also had something of the character of Easter in the West because it was the custom in the Tang to dye chicken and duck eggs during this festival.
The fifth day of the fifth moon was an official one-day holiday that commemorated the suicide of a upright statesman in the 3rd century b.c.e. who seized a rock and leaped into a river because his king had banished him for his criticisms. According to folklore, witnesses to the statesman's drowning boarded skiffs and rushed out in a futile attempt to save him. That tradition was apparently the reason for the boat races, now called dragon boat races, during that festival in Tang times. The special food for the fifth day of the fifth moon was a dumpling made of glutinous millet or rice wrapped in leaves and boiled. If it was raining on the fifth day, some people cut a piece of bamboo to make a tube for collecting the "divine water." Then they mixed rain water with the liver of an otter to form a ring that they ate to cure certain illnesses.
The seventh night of the seventh moon was a one-day holiday for officials, celebrating the love affair between the cow herder—the deity of the star Altair in the constellation Aquila—and the weaver maid, the spirit of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra. Separated by the Milky Way, they could cross it only once a year on a bridge of magpies. When they finally met, they consummated their relationship during the evening. The festival was basically for women, who prayed for enhancement of their skills at sewing and weaving.
The All Souls' Feast on the fifteenth day of the seventh moon, developed from the legend of the bodhisattva (savior) Mulian, who found his sinful mother suffering in the purgatory of hungry ghosts. There she starved, because when she put food in her mouth, it changed into burning charcoal. When Mulian informed Buddha, the latter instructed him to make a sumptuous offering, especially of fruit, on the fifteenth day of the seventh moon for monks everywhere. The collective virtue of the clergy was powerful enough to effect the salvation of seven generations of ancestors from hell, from existence as hungry ghosts, and from rebirth as animals. By dint of his effort, Mulian saved his mother. Thereafter, he asked Buddha to make the day a permanent festival, and Buddha agreed. The story became the subject of a sutra translated into Chinese during the third century and was the basis for the custom of the devout laity making offerings to monks. Monasteries took the opportunity of All Souls' Feast to make ostentatious displays of their treasures, probably to attract large numbers of donors. They also gave dramatic performances for the diversion of the crowds.
The mid-autumn festival of the fifteenth day of the eighth moon was a three-day vacation for officials. Today, Chinese call it the Moon Festival. In Tang times, it was an occasion when gentlemen admired the moon during the night, at least when the weather was clear enough to see it. They saw in the moon not an old man but a hare who was hard at work grinding ingredients for an elixir, using a mortar and pestle. (This was a Daoist image, for alchemy was Daoism's special field of endeavor.) Not everyone agreed on what the craters and plains of the lunar surface depicted. Some saw a toad there. The moon was also the site of the ice palace for the moon goddess and her court. Whatever the case, patricians and plebes alike enjoyed the festival. Those who lived in the country, where the curfew did not apply, might repair to a mountain to drink and feast throughout the night.
The ninth day of the ninth moon was another three-day holiday. This was an occasion, like the Cold Food Festival, for picnicking in the countryside, specifically, on a high elevation such as a mountain. Urban dwellers might convene their feasts at the top of a pagoda or at the Serpentine River park in Changan. There was an intimate association between the festival and the chrysanthemum. The plant was thought to promote longevity because it blooms in the autumn and mimics the life-giving sun with its yellow center and white petals. During the Tang, it was the custom to imbibe chrysanthemum-blossom ale during the festivities. The stems and leaves of the plant were gathered on the ninth day of the ninth moon, added to fermenting grains, and allowed to brew for an entire year. Drinking the ale on the festival the following year prolonged one's life.
On the last day of the twelfth moon, the well-to-do invited Buddhist monks or Daoist priests to recite scriptures at their homes. Then they prepared ale and fruit to send the god of the stove on his way. It was that deity's duty to record the sins of the family throughout the year and report them to heaven on the last day of the year. Families hung an image of the god painted on paper above their stoves on New Year's Day, and it remained there all year long, noting all the transgressions committed by the householders. On the eve of the last day of the twelfth moon, the god of the stove left the home and journeyed to the celestial realm. That was not a pleasant thought to families, so they rubbed the dregs of ale on the mouths of their images to get the deity so drunk that he could not make his report to heaven.
Joyce E. Salisbury
