Traditions of East Asia
Lunar New Year, tea ceremony, hanami, chuseok and the ancestors. 266 traditions on EveryParampara so far.
Countries
🇨🇳 China 156🇭🇰 Hong Kong 9🇯🇵 Japan 146🇲🇴 Macau 4🇲🇳 Mongolia 24🇰🇵 North Korea 22🇰🇷 South Korea 60🇹🇼 Taiwan 31
Cities and towns
On the calendar
🇨🇳 Chaozhou, China and 1 moreGongfu tea工夫茶
A skilled Chinese method of brewing tea in small teaware with precise heat and timingTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇰🇷 South KoreaJesa제사 (Jesa)
A Korean ancestral memorial ceremony held on death anniversaries and major holidays.Spiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇯🇵 JapanToshikoshi soba年越し蕎麦
Buckwheat noodles eaten on New Year's Eve, cut easily to let the year goTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇹🇼 Taipei, TaiwanNight markets in Taiwan夜市
Street markets that open at sunset across Taiwan, selling snacks, drinks and goodsTable custom · Tea-time and snacking customs
🇰🇷 Seoul, South KoreaTemplestay템플스테이
A program that invites visitors to live in South Korean Buddhist temples and join the daily routines of monastic life.Spiritual · Dinner
🇨🇳 ChinaHong Kong tea culture
Morning tea with dim sum and milk tea through the day, in Hong Kong's teahousesTable custom · Breakfast
🇨🇳 China and 5 morePostpartum confinement
A period of rest, nourishment, and seclusion for mothers after giving birth.Rite of passage
🇨🇳 Tianjin, ChinaManchu-Han Imperial Feast滿漢全席
A grand multi-day banquet uniting Manchu and Han culinary traditions in ChinaTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇨🇳 Yixing, ChinaYixing clay teapot紫砂
Handcrafted Chinese purple clay teapots that season with every brewCraft · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreMid-Autumn Festival中秋節
An annual harvest festival celebrating family reunions, full moons and mooncakesFestival · Sweets given and shared
🇯🇵 Kyoto, Japan and 4 moreHanami花見
A Japanese spring custom of gathering under blooming cherry trees to eat, drink, and celebrate the fleeting beauty of thFestival · Lunch
🇯🇵 Kyoto, JapanHinamatsuri雛祭り
A March festival in Japan where families display ornamental dolls to pray for the health and happiness of young girls.Festival · Sweets given and shared
🇨🇳 Shanghai, China and 1 moreJiaozi餃子
Crescent Chinese dumplings filled with meat or vegetables, eaten for fortune and feastsTable custom · Breakfast
🇰🇵 Pyongyang, North Korea and 3 moreNaengmyeon냉면
Long buckwheat noodles in icy broth, born in North Korea and eaten most in summerTable custom · Dinner
🇲🇳 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and 1 moreNaadamнаадам
A midsummer festival of wrestling, horse racing, and archery kept by Mongols in Mongolia and neighboring regions.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇰🇷 Jeju, South KoreaHaenyeo해녀
Female free-divers of Jeju Island who harvest seafood from the ocean.Table custom
🇯🇵 Tokyo, JapanSetsubun節分
A Japanese ritual of throwing roasted soybeans to banish evil spirits and welcome spring.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇨🇳 Xi'an, ChinaChinese tea culture中国茶文化 (Zhōngguó chá wénhuà)
A centuries-old practice of cultivating, brewing, and sharing tea as a social and spiritual ritual in China.Table custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇯🇵 Kyoto, JapanKaiseki懐石
A multi-course Japanese dining tradition shaped by tea ceremonies and the seasonsTable custom · Dinner
🇲🇳 Mongolia and 2 moreTsagaan SarЦагаан сар
The Mongolian Lunar New Year festival of peace, elders, white foods and renewalSeasonal · Feasts and festival meals
🇯🇵 Osaka, JapanTsukimi月見 (Tsukimi) / お月見 (Otsukimi)
A Japanese autumn festival honoring the harvest moon with seasonal foods and pampas grass decorations.Festival · Dinner
🇰🇷 South Korea and 1 moreDaeboreum대보름
A Korean festival of the first lunar full moon, marked by fires, wishes and feastsSeasonal · Feasts and festival meals
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreTea culture
How tea is prepared, shared and served, from Chinese tea houses to Tibetan butter teaTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreChinese New Year's Evechúxī
A reunion day for ethnic Chinese families before the Lunar New Year, marked by feasts, rituals, and staying up late.Festival · Dinner
🇨🇳 Beijing, ChinaLaba Festival臘八節
A winter porridge festival marking the start of the Chinese New Year seasonFestival · Feasts and festival meals
🇯🇵 Kyoto, JapanJapanese tea ceremony茶道 (Sadō / Chadō), 茶の湯 (Chanoyu)
The formal serving of powdered matcha, shaped by Zen, Shinto and wabiTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇯🇵 Tokyo, JapanJapanese New Year正月
An annual celebration of renewal, seasonal foods, and bell ringing across JapanSeasonal · Feasts and festival meals
🇰🇷 South KoreaGimjang김장
Korea's late-autumn work of making enough kimchi to last the winterTable custom
🇨🇳 Beijing, China and 1 moreLaba congee腊八粥
A ceremonial Chinese porridge of rice, beans and dried fruit, eaten at the Laba FestivalTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreReunion dinner團圓飯
A family gathering meal on lunar new year's eve, kept in China and VietnamTable custom · Dinner
🇨🇳 Lhasa, China and 5 moreButter teaབོད་ཇ་
A salted tea churned with yak butter, served to guests across the HimalayaTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreYum cha飲茶
A Cantonese breakfast of dim sum and tea, eaten slowly in large groupsTable custom · Breakfast
🇰🇷 South Korea and 1 morePyebaek폐백
A Korean wedding rite where newlyweds bow to elders and share dates, chestnuts and wineRite of passage
🇯🇵 Japan and 1 moreBento弁当
A single-portion packed meal in a lidded box, carried to school, work or on a trainTable custom · Lunch
🇰🇷 South KoreaKorean tea ceremony다례 (茶禮)
Tea served in Korea as a rite of courtesy, now mostly grain and herbal brewsTable custom · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇨🇳 Suzhou, China and 3 moreDongzhi冬至
A midwinter festival celebrating the return of light with family feasts and dumplingsSeasonal · Dinner
🇨🇳 Guangzhou, China and 1 moreDim sum點心 (traditional Chinese), 点心 (simplified Chinese)
Small dishes shared with tea, eaten as brunch in Cantonese teahouses and restaurantsTable custom · Breakfast
🇨🇳 Yulin, ChinaYulin Dog Meat Festival狗肉节
A ten-day June festival in Yulin, China, where dog meat is eaten with lycheesFestival · Feasts and festival meals
🇨🇳 Suzhou, China and 4 moreDongzhi Festival冬至
A winter solstice festival of family reunions, ancestor rites and sweet rice ballsSeasonal · Dinner
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreFive Grains五穀
A sacred grouping of staple crops honoured as the bedrock of East Asian civilizationFolklore
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Five Grains: Kurt Stüber [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tea culture: Georges Seguin ( Okki ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Japanese New Year: No machine-readable author provided. Sixgimic assumed (based on copyri, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hanami: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tsagaan Sar: User:Chinneeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Jiaozi: Bioniclepluslotr, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Chinese tea culture: Gary Stevens, CC BY 2.0, source
- Daeboreum: hojusaram, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Setsubun: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kaiseki: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Toshikoshi soba: Osamu Iwasaki, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Night markets in Taiwan: Henry M. Trotter, Public domain, source
- Tsukimi: katorisi, CC BY 3.0, source
- Chuseok: by Joseph Steinberg (Baltimoron in Korea) at Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Gimjang: USAG- Humphreys, CC BY 2.0, source
- Postpartum confinement: Unknown, Public domain, source
- Manchu-Han Imperial Feast: Cara Chow ( Charlotte1125 ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Gongfu tea: Kandukuru Nagarjun, CC BY 2.0, source
- Yixing clay teapot: Commonsenses, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Templestay: (c)한국불교문화사업단, culturalcorpsofkoreanbuddhism, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Laba congee: N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Mid-Autumn Festival: Shizhao, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Butter tea: Yosomono, CC BY 2.0, source
- Yum cha: Infomofo, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Pyebaek: halfGoku, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Bento: Blue Lotus, CC BY 2.0, source
- Korean tea ceremony: Mai-Linh Doan, CC BY-SA 1.0, source
- Yulin Dog Meat Festival: Maria Ly, CC BY 2.0, source
- Haenyeo: Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Naengmyeon: wjlee4284, CC BY 2.5, source
- Naadam: Chongkian, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hinamatsuri: Lalupa, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dongzhi Festival: Alpha, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Chinese New Year's Eve: Mickey Đại Phát, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dongzhi: N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dim sum: Kolumbusjogger, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Japanese tea ceremony: Photograph taken by Stephane D'Alu ( en:User:Sdalu ) in April 2004, CC BY-SA 3.0, source