Handmade Matzoh The beginnings of Passover In its earliest beginnings, which could go back to the Stone Age, Passover was a Jewish spring festival. Like other spring festivals, it celebrated the first barley harvest after the winter. History of barley West Asian religion All our West Asia articles Why did people eat matzoh? All winter [...]
Chinese painting of kite-flying The earliest kites were probably invented in China about 800 BC, during the Zhou Dynasty. People made these early kites out of bamboo and silk. Chinese people flew kites for fun, and also used kites in war to carry messages, to signal people far away, and to carry explosives into [...]
Along the River During Qingming Festival (Song Dynasty, 1100s AD) What is Qingming Jie? Like Chinese New Year, Qingming Jie is a Chinese spring festival marking the beginning of spring plowing and planting. Chinese New Year More Chinese religion All our Ancient China articles When did Qingming Jie start? By the end of [...]
Ancient China religion: Han dynasty animal sacrifice (ca. 200 BC-200 AD) China's ancestor worship In the Shang Dynasty (about 2000 BC), the earliest period we know much about, people in China worshipped a lot of different gods - weather gods and sky gods, and also a higher god who ruled over the other gods, [...]
Early Chinese women: A Chinese woman playing polo (T'ang Dynasty, 700s AD) China has always been influenced by the cultures to its south - India and Southeast Asia - where women have little power, status, or freedom. But China has also been influenced by the cultures to its north and west in Central [...]
How old is China's Cinderella story? Tuan Cheng-Shih wrote a version of the Cinderella story during the T'ang Dynasty, about 700 AD. The T'ang Dynasty More Chinese stories and poems All our China articles Did they get this story from the Mahbharata? It may be a retelling of an earlier Indian version from the Hindu [...]
