1 . Minor Cold is the 23rd solar term of the 24 traditional Chinese solar terms. For most areas of China, it marks the start of the coldest days of the year. Still, bitter cold can’t prevent people from enjoying their lives.     1    

Enjoy Mutton hot pot and baked sweet potato.

Mutton hot pot, and baked sweet potato are two recommended foods for Minor Cold.     2     It can help prevent cold from harming their organs. The yang energy in the three types of food is strengthened through their method of cooking: boiling, stir frying and baking.

Eat Laba porridge.

Another important traditional food for Minor Cold is Laba porridge.     3     Local people in Beijing often cook Laba porridge on the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month. After one night’s slow simmering, all the ingredients melt into the porridge in the morning of the eighth day, becoming a warm delicacy to enjoy on cold days.

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People in Nanjing used to take Minor Cold quite seriously, and they still keep a custom of eating vegetable rice to celebrate this solar term. The rice is steamed with aijiaohuang, sausage and salted duck that are all the specialties in Nanjing.

Make Chinese traditional herbal medicine.

    5     Many people need them to prepare new medicines, which will be consumed before the Lunar New Year.

3 . Edinburgh is the world’s “festival city”. The city holds 12 festivals throughout the year, half of which are celebrated during the months of July and August. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Scottish(苏格兰的)capital during that time. Here are some of the events they can enjoy.

The Edinburgh International Festival

This is the original(最初的)Edinburgh festival, which began in 1947. Actors, musicians, dancers and opera singers from all over the world perform for large audiences(观众). You need tickets for most of the festival’s events, which take place in theaters around the city.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe

This is the largest art festival in the world, with thousands of performances. Anyone can perform at the festival. Over 20,000 artists can take part. Go to the Royal Mile, one of Edinburgh’s main streets, to watch performers such as magicians, acrobats(杂技演员)and comedians. However, it can get very busy, as thousands of tourists and local(当地的)people fill the city streets to enjoy the shows.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival

The largest book festival in the world began in 1983 and takes place every year in Charlotte Square Gardens in the center of Edinburgh. There are over 700 events for children and adults. You can meet many authors, talk to them, ask them to sign a book or listen to them talk about their stories.

The Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

Music lovers come to this festival to enjoy musical performances all over the city. Artists perform street theater, dance and circus(马戏)shows in amazing costumes(戏装). Everyone can enjoy the music and dance performances.

4 . In the long history of about 5,000 years, numerous Chinese traditional festivals were celebrated in honour of gods or some significant days, some of which are passed down from generation to generation and people always practice special traditional activities in each festival.

The Qingming Festival

The Qingming Festival is on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox (春分), around April 4 or April 5 every year.     1    . They remove the weeds growing on their ancestors’ tombs to make them clean, so this festival is also called Tomb-Sweeping Day. In some areas, people are forbidden to use the fire to cook food, so they only eat the cool food. Thus, it is also named the Hanshi Festival.

The Double Ninth Festival

    2    . The Chinese character of September is the same as 9, so we get this special name. Chinese people, especially in the northern region, climb up the mountains to enjoy the wonderful view, and admire the beauty of chrysanthemums (菊花).

The Winter Solstice (冬至)

The winter solstice is on around December 22 or 23 of the solar calendar each year. From that day on, the daytime will be longer and longer.     3    . Chinese people in the northern region eat dumplings and wontons (馄饨), while in the southern region rice balls.

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In China, this festival is in late January or early February, the last day of the lunar year. People celebrate it by having a family reunion dinner, setting off fireworks and staying up late. Breaking the dishes and bowls is a thing all the people are afraid of, but if you did it, you should say “Sui sui ping an!”     5    .

5 . Top Festivals In Europe

Dates: 12 Feb, 2023—1 Mar, 2023

The Carnival of Venice, which began in 1979 as an effort to revive the culture of this city, is one of the best festivals featuring masks. Each year, almost 3,000,000 people attend this 20-day-long biggest festivals in Europe. There is a water parade, a grand ball with old and modern music, and a popularity contest for best mask design.

Dates: 22 Jun, 2023—26 Jun, 2023

Of all the famous European music festivals, the Glastonbury Festival has a special place. Held in Somerset, England, since the 1970s, the festival is a major part of the British culture. Major pop act performers are invited to perform and headline. The festival sees as much as 175,000 people in attendance and is the world’s largest greenfield festival.

Dates: 22—24Jul, 2023 & 29—31Jul, 2023

For the music lovers, Tomorrowland is one of the largest electronic music festivals which takes place in Belgium. The festival is hosted at the town of Boom, Belgium. First organized in 2005, this festival has become an annual tradition which is visited by people from far and wide.

Dates: 10—15 Aug, 2023

The Sziget Festival is one of the best cultural festivals in Europe. Started in 1993 and hosted in an island of Budapest, this festival gives an amazing holiday, with around 400,000 fans from around 70 countries. The festival features the non-stop party and amazing live concerts.

6 . When people think of Beijing, the hutong style always comes to mind. It is no exaggeration (夸张) to say within hutong lives the city’s history.

The word “hutong” referred to a place where people live, which was borrowed from the Mongolian word to mean “water well” about 700 years ago. Hutong we see today are made up of small paths formed by walls of siheyuan. They were built during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, there were more than 3,000 hutong. Most of the city’s population lived in this traditional housing. But with the modernization of the city in the 1980s and early 1990s, many hutong were pulled down to build roads, skyscrapers and modern houses.

The government has recognized the importance of hutong to Chinese cultural heritage. In 2002, Beijing listed 40 protected historical zones and increased its efforts to rebuild some key relics and older streets in the city. Nearly 500 hutong have survived.

Hutong that still exist are like oases (绿洲) of calm in the noisy city. Walking through them, it’s common to see groups of elderly people sitting together playing cards, mahjong (麻将) or Chinese chess. In the early mornings and evenings, they gather to practice traditional forms of exercise such as Taijiquan as well as dancing and singing folk songs or Peking Opera. Hutong have become a museum of Beijing’s folk customs and history.

7 . For the British, the home is a private place in which he or she goes to hide away from the troubles of life. It is very seldom that one would be invited to a British person’s home. It is rude to knock on a person’s door if you are not invited. If you are invited, don’t ask to see more than the downstairs that your British host invites you into. Never ask how much the house or any of the items in it cost.

To the American, most of them want their home to be a place where they can entertain (款待) and share their lives with their friends. They may be delighted to give you a full tour of their houses. They may also be pleased when you show your interest and pleasure in their houses.

Both British and American people will engage in quite a bit of chat and a drink or two before the meal is served. After the first mouthful, you should say how delicious the food is and ask something about it. Remember, never eat with your mouth open and make very little noise while eating. It would be nice of you to help your host in any way. Maybe offer to pour some drinks or clear up after the meal.

8 . Suddenly one Sunday in August, the streets are filled with colour. A procession (队列) of bands and dancers makes its way slowly through the city. Every evening, crowds of people walk up to the top of the Royal Mile, looking forward to a show of military music. On every shop window and noticeboard, posters have appeared, promoting everything from poetry readings to children’s theatre, art exhibitions (展览) to concerts. It’s festival time.

From its beginning in 1947, the Edinburgh International Festival (the “official” festival) has become a world-famous cultural event. The city turns into a huge arts centre, with its music, dance and exhibitions, all by world-famous artists. Every year more than twenty nations perform (表演) to audiences from all over the world in theatres, halls, schools, churches and the streets of the city. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo adds to the choice of entertainment, with its marching (游行) and military bands in Edinburgh Castle.

The Festival Fringe (the “unofficial” festival) is the biggest event of its kind in the world, with more than 900 shows to choose from and over 6,000 writers and performers taking part. It gives people a first-class opportunity to see many works performed for the first time—several of which go on to successful performances elsewhere.

The Film Festival gives fans an opportunity to widen their knowledge of films. And to show that there is something for everyone, the Jazz Festival has become very popular in recent years. You can hear the very best of music all over the city at this time.

There is no more exciting place to be than in Edinburgh at festival time!

9 . It had been a “long” and hard walk from home to the subway station for teenager Mandy Chan when she first put on Hanfu in public. Chan is one of the founders of Hanfu in Hong Kong. “It was a set with a cream-colored shirt, a brown jacket in China’s Ming dynasty style and a red pleated (有褶的) skirt made by me,” she recalled recently, almost 10 years later.

It was not the looks from others but her limited knowledge on the traditional Chinese clothing that had terrified her. Chan added, “If anyone had asked what I was wearing, or the history behind it, I would have been afraid I couldn’t tell them the whole picture.”

However, her uneasiness had gradually drifted away with more deep research on traditional Chinese culture. Hanfu was the traditional clothing of China’s Han ethnic group that was formed in the main residential areas of the Han people in ancient China. The historical clothing has untold stories and ideas in every detail. The cutting and stitching (缝合) line in the middle part of Hanfu fits the spine (脊柱) of the human body and helps people to dress properly. This design, which has gone beyond itself as mere decoration, points to the qualities of the wearers as upright and easy-going individuals.

“Instead of imitating people like what I used to do, I have jumped out of my comfort zone and found the style that suits me best,” Chan said. “Through Hanfu, I have found myself and so many unexplored things in my life.” Chan added that she had found her lifelong passion through Hanfu, which is a goal and dream that has never been absent from her life. Chan found she was not alone after falling in love with Hanfu. She believes that classics will never go out of style and she herself has integrated Hanfu into her everyday life.

10 . Food festivals around the world

Stilton Cheese Rolling

May Day is a traditional day for celebrations, but the 2,000 English villagers of Stilton must be the only people in the world who include cheese rolling in their annual plans. Teams of four, dressed in a variety of strange and funny clothes, roll a complete cheese along a 50-metre course. On the way, they must not kick or throw their cheese, or go into their competitors’ lane. Competition is fierce and the chief prize is a complete Stilton cheese weighing about four kilos (disappointingly, but understandably the cheeses used in the race are wooden ones). All the competitors are served with beer or port wine, the traditional accompaniment for Stilton cheese.

Fiery Foods Festival—The Hottest Festival on Earth

Every year more than 10,000 people head for the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They come from as far away as Australia, the Caribbean and China, but they all share a common addiction—food that is not just spicy , but hot enough to make your mouth burn, your head spin and your eyes water. Their destination is the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival which is held over a period of three days every March. You might like to try a chocolate-covered habanero pepper—officially the hottest pepper in the world—or any one of the thousands of products that are on show. But one thing’s for sure—if you don’t like the feeling of a burning tongue, this festival isn’t for you!

La Tomatina—The World’s Biggest Food Fight

On the last Wednesday of every August, the Spanish town of Bunol hosts La Tomatina—the world’s largest food fight. A week-long celebration leads up to an exciting tomato battle as the highlight of the week's events. The early morning sees the arrival of large trucks with tomatoes—official fight-starters get things going by casting tomatoes at the crowd.

The battle lasts little more than half an hour, in which time around 50,000 kilograms of tomatoes have been thrown at anyone or anything that moves, runs, or fights back. Then everyone heads down to the river to make friends again—and for a much-needed wash!