Chinese scholars have reiterated their belief that more traditional Chinese festivals, such as the Dragon Boat Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day, should be made public holidays.

"The current holiday system does not accord with the long-standing customs of Chinese people," Liu Quili, President of the Chinese Folklore Society, said at the 3rd Dongyue Symposium hosted by the Chinese Folklore Society and Beijing Folklore Museum.

At present, China has three weeklong holidays each year - the International Labor's Day holiday, the National Day holiday and the Spring Festival holiday. The latter is the only holiday that ties in with China's traditional customs.

"Golden weeks for the International Labor's Day and National Day lack any specific cultural ties and are unhelpful to the protection of traditional culture since people usually choose to relax by shopping or traveling," Liu said. Many festivals, considered important days on China's Lunar Calendar, such as New Year's Eve, Mid-Autumn Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day, on which people pay their respects to their ancestors, are not celebrated and the customs are not commonly commemorated in cities as people have to work.

"For example, since Tomb-Sweeping Day is not a legal holiday, people have to rush the process of sweeping the tombs to pay their respects to their ancestors," Liu said. Huang Tao, an associate professor of the People's University of China, said the most effective measures to protect cultural festivals were to make the traditional festivals legal holidays to enable more people to understand the importance of tradition.

Cai Jiming, a member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), also suggested in detail that China should shorten the seven-day International Labour's Day and National Day to five days, and distribute the days to celebrate four traditional festivals of the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day, and New Year's Eve.

A survey on Sina.com revealed that over 98 percent of netizens called for New Year's Eve to be made a legal holiday. Feng Shiliang, another CPPCC member, said he would lodge a formal proposal for this holiday change during the fifth session of the 10th CPPCC starting from March. 3.

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2007)