October 1st is Chinese National Day. National Day, celebrating the foundation of the People's Republic of China, is one of the seven legal holidays in China. In fact, National Day has appeared for a very long time and should go back to ancient times. It started in the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316) and originated from the felicitations of happy events in the country.

 

In the feudal period, the emperor enthronement ceremony and the birthday of the emperor were main events to celebrate. That was National Day in ancient times, while National Day has a different meaning today. It is to celebrate the foundation of the People's Republic of China, in 1949.

 

There will be a variety of grand ceremonies and activities in China during National Day, such as a great ceremonial review of troops and lighting fireworks in the evening. National Day lasts 3 days since the year 1997. But people actually get a 7-day vacation which combines National Day holiday and two weekends on either side.

 

National Day holiday is another golden week in China. People will rush out to do some long-cherished travel, go shopping and do some other things.

In 2014, China National Day Holiday will start from Oct.1 to Oct.7.

Origin of the Date

For centuries, China was ruled by a series of dynasties that supplanted each other by scheduled and formal occasion and after a sudden and unexpected five-hour civil war in 1949, after more than hundred years of struggle against the foreign presence, the people finally won their independence supervised by the Chinese communist party.

The Communists led by Mao Zedong poster hanging on Tiananmen Gate took over China and on October 1st, 1949, the Chairman Mao Zedong declared the creation of New China down from the Tiananmen Square. The first session of the primary Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) determined in 1949 to fix on October 1 the date of the National Day.

On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was formally established, with its national capital in Beijing. With the help of the Soviets, Mao began reforming the government and the social order of China and the entire society of China was transformed in just a few years.

Chairman Mao Zedong declared the creation of New China in Oct. 1. 1949

As far as official celebrations are concerned, the biggest is National Day, which in the pre-form era was marked by parades in most cities, and a monumental parade in Beijing witnessed by China’s top leaders standing on a podium at the head of enormous Tiananmen Square.