Domestic and international famous actors and artists come to Shanghai, the stage for the whole world, to put on performances. So, Shanghai launched many large-scale celebrations on culture and arts in recent years. For instance, the International TV Festival is held once every two years in Shanghai, with attendants from dozens of countries and districts throughout the world to showcase their works and also learn from others. The Shanghai International Film Festival, a world-renowned A-class festival held each summer, collects not only the finest works of international film and culture of the day, but also the brightest stars around the world. The Shanghai International Art Festival, usually in October, is also held once every two years. Well-known troupes home and abroad put on their best performances here.

There are many other festivals featuring strong local characteristics and culture, such as the Shanghai Tourism Festival, the Xuhui Sweet Osmanthus Festival, the Nanhui Peach Blossom Festival, the Fengxian Kite Festival, the Zhabei Tea Culture Festival and the Putuo Flowers Festival. Traditional Festivals

Besides the national holidays such as “May Day”(May 1), “National Holiday”(October 1) and “New Year's Day”(January 1), Shanghaiese can also enjoy other traditional festivals. If you have strong interest in Chinese traditional culture, you could stay with your Chinese friends and spend these special traditional festivals in Shanghai. New Year's Eve and Spring Festival

New Year's Eve, or “Lunar New Year's Eve” or “Hogmanay”, means the last night of the lunar year. In order to welcome the coming New Year, people usually make decorations to their homes, and buy daffodils, calyx canthus, and geranium plants to put in vases for adding festive atmosphere. They also store up food and goods for the festival, put up auspicious paintings and blessing couplets. When the darkness falls, the whole family gets together and enjoys the New Year’s meal, which is also called the reunion dinner. Of course, the dishes are very delicious.

Usually, the local spend the night watching the Spring Festival Gala on TV, or gather on Huaihai Road, Nanjing Road or other bustling streets to celebrate the New Year's Eve. When the New Year’s bell rings, firecrackers are giving off to welcome the New Year. For the concern of the safety of citizens, fireworks are banned in downtown areas. And the people can spend the festival in many other ways.

Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival for Chinese people. During the festival, everywhere takes on an auspicious atmosphere. January 1 in the lunar calendar is China's traditional New Year. On that morning, people put on their new clothes, and pay a New Year call to the elders, peers and friends. The elders will give the kids extra pocket money in red envelopes called "hong bao" to congratulate them on their grow-up. Now, as the communication technology develops, many also send their good wishes for the New Year though short messages by cell phones and greeting cards through the Internet. Lantern Festival

January 15 in the lunar calendar, two weeks after the Spring Festival, is called “the Lantern Festival”, while the night of that day is called “the Lantern Festival Eve”. People usually eat wonton during the day, and eat rice glue ball (“tang yuan”) in the evening. It is the best time of year to watch lanterns during the Lantern Festival. Lanterns are hanged everywhere in the city, and the best-known lanterns are in the City God Temple. During the nighttime, people are crowded to watch lantern shows. Lanterns hanged in the country and fields are called “Wang Tian Lantern”, which indicates a good harvest of grains in the coming year. “Dragon Lantern Show” is one of the lantern shows to celebrate the festival in the suburban areas, esp. in west suburb of Shanghai and Nanxiang in Jiading District. The performance is accompanied by percussion instruments, and sometimes tens of dragon lanterns may meet together to perform “Grabbing Dragon Ball”. Tomb-sweeping Day

The Tomb-sweeping Day, usually falling on March 15 in the lunar calendar, is the most important festival for sacrifice in China and the festival for people to worship their ancestors and sweep their tombs. Tomb-sweeping, also called visiting ancestor’s grave, is an activity of sacrifice for the decedent. Since lots of Shanghaiese buried their decedent relatives in neighboring cities, they usually go with their family to other cities to sweep the tombs during the Tomb-sweeping Day. In recent years, there are more than 1,300,000 citizens going tomb-sweeping to the cemeteries in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces every year.

To relieve the pressure of transportation and worship the decedent in a more civilized way, “Internet Commemoration” websites are also very popular with local people. Many upload the pictures and the life and deeds of their ancestors to the Internet, which helps them paying respect to the decedent without going out to visit the tombs. Double Seventh Festival

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the Double Seventh Festival, also known as the "Begging for Cleverness Festival" or “Girl’s Festival”. It is the most romantic festival in Chinese traditional festivals, and is also known as China's Valentine's Day.

According to a romantic Chinese fairy tale, the cowherd and the weaving girl are deeply in love with each other. However, since a mortal could not marry a goddess, the Lady Queen Mother drew a milky way between them, which separates them in different worlds. They can only meet on the evening of the Double Seventh Festival though a bridge built by magpies.

The weaving girl is a beautiful and smart girl, and she also masters many techniques. So mortal girls would beg her for wisdom and techniques on the Double Seventh festival, and they also beg her for the blessing of a good marriage. That is why the Double Seventh festival is also known as “Begging for Cleverness Festival”.

In every Double Seventh Festival, many Internet rose shops in Shanghai are offering thoughtful services to the people in love. Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival Chinese people attaches great importance to. It is said that the night on August 15 in the lunar calendar is the best time to see a full moon, so relatives stay together, eating moon cakes and enjoying the full moon.

It is said that many Shanghaiese like hanging out to outside Xiaodongmen, and enjoying the shadows of the moon in the water on Lujia Stone Bridge. “Roof Beam Night of Stone Moon”, which means enjoying the view of the moon at night on the stone bridge, is one of the eight famous sightseeing spots in Shanghai. From Mid-autumn Festival to August 18, many people will also go to East City to see the river and lake, and some will travel to Haining in Zhejiang Province to see the tide there. In recent years, the “Sweet Osmanthus Festival” is also held during the Mid-Autumn Festival with various performances put on.

September 9 in the lunar calendar is the traditional Double Ninth Festival. In the ancient and mysterious book "The Book of Changes" (Yi Jing), number "6" was thought to be of Yin character, meaning feminine or negative, while number "9" was thought to be Yang, meaning masculine or positive. So the number nine in both month and day creates the Double Ninth Festival, or Chongyang Festival. "Chong" in Chinese means "double." Besides, as the double ninth was pronounced as "Jiu Jiu" in Chinese, the same sound as the word to signify "forever", the Chinese ancestors considered it an auspicious day worth celebration. That's why ancient Chinese began to celebrate this festival long time ago.

The activities during the Double Ninth Festival are rich, colorful and romantic, including outgoing and sightseeing, mountain climbing, chrysanthemums appreciation, pinning the leaves of cornus on clothes, eating a special cake called Chongyang Cake, and drinking chrysanthemum wine. She Mountain in Songjiang District and the artificial hill in Yu Garden downtown are the best places for mountain climbing.

“The Double Ninth Festival”, pronounced as “JiuJiu” in Chinese, has the same sound of another Chinese word that stands for “Long Lasting or forever”. Besides, the number nine is the biggest number in single numbers, which means long living. So, the festival is also called the Senior’s Day. It is also the day for people to show respect, love and help to the seniors.