Chinese folk cloth tiger is one of the most widely circulated toys. In a Chinese mind, tiger can help drive off evil and avoid disasters, is an auspicious symbol of peace, and also can protect one’s wealth.

Fifth day of in May of Lunar Calendar Year is Dragon Boat Festival. One of the popular customs is to make cloth tiger for children, or to paint a tiger face on the child’s forehead with Realgar. It means healthy, strong and brave.

Happy New Year of Tiger, everyone! Welcome to the February 18, 2010 edition of china carnival. We have six posts for this month. Please enjoy!

Zhu presents The Great Wall posted at Correr Es Mi Destino, saying, “Climbing the Great Wall is tough. It’s hot and within minutes we were literally dripping sweat …

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is the longest and most important festivity in the Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.

Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. Here I summarize ten folk typical folk customs for Chinese New Year. Hope it can help you understand better about these complicated festivities.

Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) is the happiest moment of year for Chinese people. Happiest moment must have happiest music. Here I selected ten happiest Chinese folk music for you. Wish you a happy new year of the tiger!

Folk festival music, a major tributary of Chinese folk music, has strong characteristics of secular music. It is good at the expression of lively scene of carnival, and rendering festive atmosphere.

Folk traditions and customs of the New Year meal vary across China: Northerners eat dumplings, Southerners eat rice dumpling, Nian-Gao; In Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other places, people eat Tangyuan, either deep-fried or broiled. In one word, “Customs are different from area to area even if they are located only more than 50 kilometers away from one another.”

Here, I will show you some examples how Chinese people in different regions start their New Year with the first meal.