Calendrier des Jours Fériés en Asie de l'Est

Introduction

East Asia — comprising China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, along with diaspora communities worldwide — hosts one of the world's richest and most complex holiday landscapes. The region's celebrations reflect thousands of years of Confucian social philosophy (emphasising family hierarchy, ancestor veneration, and ritual propriety), Buddhist and Taoist traditions, and the distinctly different modernisation paths taken by each country since the nineteenth century. The Chinese Lunisolar Calendar — a lunisolar system that has been refined for over 3,000 years — underlies most of East Asia's major traditional holidays, though each country has adapted these traditions distinctly. Japan abolished the lunar calendar officially in 1873, shifting all traditional holidays to fixed Gregorian Calendar dates. China and Korea maintain the lunar calendar alongside the Gregorian, with Lunar New Year and other festivals calculated monthly.

Lunar New Year

The [[lunar-new-year]] is humanity's most widely observed celebration, marking the beginning of the first month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar. Each year is associated with one of twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig) in a repeating cycle.

China — Spring Festival (Chūnjié)

China's Spring Festival is the world's largest annual human migration, with hundreds of millions of people travelling home for New Year in what is called chunyun (spring migration). The holiday generates a seven-day Public Holiday (often extended to fifteen days of celebration). Traditions include reunion dinners on New Year's Eve, red envelope (hóngbāo) gifts of money for children and unmarried relatives, lion and dragon dances, firecrackers (where permitted), and the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day. Regional foods vary enormously: northern China celebrates with jiǎozi (dumplings) while southern China favours niángāo (rice cake) and tangyuan (glutinous rice balls).

South Korea — Seollal

Korean Lunar New Year (Seollal) is one of the three major family-reunion holidays of the Korean year. The morning ritual of sebae — bowing deeply to elders while wearing hanbok (traditional dress) and receiving blessings and sebaetdon (money) — is one of Korean culture's most important family moments. Ancestral rites (charye) are performed with elaborately prepared food offerings at home altars. Yut nori (a traditional board game) and traditional folk songs are played.

China's Golden Week Holidays

National Day Golden Week — 1–7 October

China's National Day Golden Week celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong on 1 October 1949. The seven-day holiday generates the world's largest tourism migration: over 800 million domestic trips are made during the week. Tiananmen Square hosts a flag-raising ceremony, and a major military parade is held on significant anniversaries.

Qingming Festival — Tomb Sweeping Day

[[qingming]] (around 4–5 April) is China's ancestral veneration festival, when families visit and clean the graves of ancestors, make offerings of food and paper goods (including paper money burned for the dead to use), and spend time in nature as spring arrives. The tradition has been observed for over 2,500 years. The Qingming Scroll — an eleventh-century painting depicting Qingming celebrations in Kaifeng — is one of China's most celebrated artworks.

Dragon Boat Festival — Duanwu

The [[dragon-boat-festival]] on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (usually June) commemorates the death of the poet-statesman Qu Yuan (340–278 BCE), who drowned himself in protest against political corruption. Dragon boat racing (teams of paddlers in dragon-shaped boats) and the eating of zòngzi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves) are the central traditions. Dragon boat racing has spread worldwide as an international sport.

Mid-Autumn Festival — Zhongqiu Jié

The [[mid-autumn-festival]] on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month (September or October) celebrates the harvest moon. Mooncakes — dense pastries with lotus paste or red bean fillings, often enclosing a salted egg yolk representing the moon — are the iconic festival food, exchanged as gifts between families and business associates. Families gather outdoors to view the full moon and share mooncakes.

Japan

Golden Week — Late April to Early May

Japan's Golden Week (late April to early May) clusters four national holidays within a week: Shōwa Day (29 April, birthday of Emperor Shōwa), Constitution Memorial Day (3 May), Greenery Day (4 May), and Children's Day (5 May). It generates one of Japan's two major domestic travel periods (the other being Obon). The Koinobori — colourful carp-shaped streamers flown outside homes — are the visual symbol of Children's Day, each carp representing a child in the family.

Obon — Festival of Ancestors

[[obon]] (mid-August) is a Buddhist festival to honour the spirits of ancestors, believed to return to the living world during this period. Families clean and visit graves, light welcome fires (mukaebi) to guide spirits home, and participate in bon odori — communal dances performed in circles to folk music. Paper lanterns are floated on rivers and the sea (tōrō nagashi) to guide spirits back to the ancestral world.

Shichi-Go-San — 15 November

Shichi-Go-San (Seven-Five-Three) is a Japanese rite-of-passage celebration for children aged three, five (boys), and seven (girls). Children dress in formal kimono for a visit to a Shinto shrine, where prayers for their health and growth are offered. Chitose-ame (thousand-year candy) is given in bags decorated with cranes and turtles, symbols of longevity.

South Korea

Chuseok — Korean Harvest Festival

[[chuseok]] (the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month) is Korea's most important traditional holiday — a three-day autumn harvest celebration and family reunion. Ancestral rites (charye) are performed with freshly harvested foods arranged on home altars. Songpyeon — half-moon shaped rice cakes filled with sesame, honey, or chestnuts and steamed over pine needles — are the festival's defining food. Traditional games include ganggangsullae (a women's circle dance under the full moon) and ssireum (Korean wrestling).

Children's Day — 5 May

South Korea's Children's Day is a Public Holiday devoted to family outings and child-centred activities. Theme parks, zoos, and museums are packed with families; children receive gifts and special meals. The day reflects Confucian values reinterpreted through modern Korean child-centred family culture.

Taiwan

Double Ten — National Day

Taiwan's National Day (10 October, called 'Double Ten' — 10/10) commemorates the Wuchang Uprising of 10 October 1911 that led to the founding of the Republic of China. The presidential palace plaza in Taipei hosts a ceremony with military displays, mass performances, and the presidential address. The day carries particular significance given Taiwan's complex relationship with the People's Republic of China across the strait.

Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Pudu)

Taiwan's [[ghost-festival]] (fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month) is observed with particular seriousness in Taiwan compared to mainland China. The entire month is considered the 'Ghost Month' when the spirits of the deceased walk the earth. Temple ceremonies, elaborate outdoor banquets set for spirits, the burning of paper offerings, and releasing water lanterns on rivers are the principal practices. Many Taiwanese avoid swimming, moving house, or starting new businesses during Ghost Month.

Mongolia

Naadam Festival

Mongolia's Naadam festival (11–13 July) is the country's most important celebration, combining national independence commemoration with the 'Three Games of Men': wrestling (Mongolian wrestling, or bökh), horse racing, and archery. The Naadam horse races are unique — jockeys are children aged 5–13 who ride without saddles across courses of 15–30 kilometres. The Ulaanbaatar Naadam is the national event, but every province holds its own. UNESCO recognised Naadam as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010.

The East Asian Lunar Calendar Community

The Chinese lunisolar calendar has connected East and Southeast Asian cultures for millennia. Lunar New Year is now designated a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and is observed officially in China, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and diaspora communities worldwide. The Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival are observed across China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and diaspora communities as expressions of shared cultural heritage that transcend national borders. The calendar creates a remarkable network of simultaneous celebration across hundreds of millions of people who may speak different languages and live in different countries but are eating the same mooncakes on the same autumn night.

Conclusion

East Asia's holiday calendar is one of humanity's oldest continuously maintained cultural systems — the Qingming grave-sweeping tradition, the Dragon Boat races, and the mooncake exchanges all connect modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people to civilisations that have been maintaining these rituals for two millennia. In the twenty-first century, these holidays are simultaneously ancient tradition and contemporary identity — celebrated with smartphones and social media alongside ancestral offerings and red envelopes, digital hongbao transfers and traditional lion dances, preserving the deepest patterns of human culture in the newest forms of human technology.

Site	Domain	Focus
UnitFYI	unitfyi.com	Unit conversion for 220 units across 20 categories
TimeFYI	timefyi.com	World clock, timezone converter, sunrise & sunset times
HolidayFYI	holidayfyi.com	Public holidays & observances for 200+ countries
NameFYI	namefyi.com	Name origins, romanization, and cultural naming traditions