Chinanews, Nanjing, Feb. 16 – Some folklorists suggest adding traditional Chinese festivals to the lists of China’s legal holidays. “To list the Spring Festival, Tomb-sweeping Day and the Mid-Autumn Festival as the national intangible cultural heritages is far from enough as such traditional Chinese festivals are still excluded from the lists of legal holidays,” they said this at the Third “Eastern Taishan Mountain International Academic Seminar held recently.
Liu Kuili, director of Chinese Folklore Society, said that people’s resting time is different from the legal system. People have their own living schedules. On the Tomb-sweeping Day, people usually hold sacrificial ceremonies, and on Lunar New Year’s Eve, many people become busy preparing for the Spring Festival celebrations.
“Today’s legal holidays are meaningless from the cultural perspective. During those holidays people just go traveling, shopping or just staying at home, thus the functions of festival celebration cannot be reflected,” said Liu.
Huang Tao, associate professor from Renmin University of China, said that to include traditional Chinese festivals as legal holidays will be an effective way to protect “holiday culture.”