The traditional Chinese holidays are an essential part of harvests or prayer offerings. The most important Chinese holiday is the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), which is also celebrated in overseas ethnic Chinese communities (for example in Malaysia, Thailand, or the USA). Traditional holidays are varied from region to region but most are scheduled according to the Chinese calendar; exceptions, like the Qingming and winter solstice days, fall on the respective jieqi (solar terms) in the agricultural calendar.

Public holidays

Traditional holidays are generally celebrated in Chinese-speaking regions. For the most part however, only Chinese New Year, Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival are statutory public holidays. This is the case in both mainland China and Taiwan whilst Hong Kong and Macau also observe Buddha's Birthday and Chung Yeung Festival. In Singapore, Chinese New Year is the only traditional Chinese public holiday, likewise with Malaysia. Each region has its own holidays on top of this condensed traditional Chinese set. Mainland China and Taiwan observe patriotic holidays, Hong Kong and Macau observe Christian holidays, and Malaysia and Singapore celebrate Malay and Indian festivals.