Festivals in their cultural context

1. Describing festivals
Loot at these short extracts about Chinese cultural festivals.
_ The Taipei Lantern Festival is held at the time of China's traditional Lantern (n- đèn lồng) Festival, which falls two weeks after the Chinese New Year  and features children parading about the streets at night carrying homemade lanterns.
_ Lanterns remain the focus of the festival. The most spectacular of all is the theme lantern (n- đèn lồng) at the Chiang Kaishek Memorial Hall.

_ Chinese New Year's Day will normally fall between January 10 and February 19. It is the grandest holiday for all Chinese around the world and is celebrated in many ways during the course of season, depending on your age, sex and marial statuts.
_ It celebrates the birth of a new year, a time for renewed hope.

2. Other useful words and phrases connected with festivals
_ A lot of people are very superstitious (ad- mê tín), especially about numbers and colours. (have illogical (adj- phi lý, ko logic) beliefs about hidden forces in nature)
_ The festival celebrated the centenary/bi-centenary of the country's independence. (100th anniversary/ 200th anniversary)
_ In some cultures, traditional festivals celebreate the end of periods of penance (actions to show you are sorry for bad deeds) and fasting (not eating for a long period).
_ The Rio de janeiro carnival is always a very flamboyant (extremely colourful and exaggerated (ad- sặc sỡ, rực rỡ)) and raucous (very noisy) event.
_ The Festival of the Dead was very sombre (serious, heavy and sad) and atmospheric (had special feeling or atmosphere)
_ The annual holiday commemorates all those who died in the country's civil war. (formal: respects and remembers offically)