Chinese Lantern Festival


 

The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar.


Chinese Lantern FestivalIt is the night of the first full moon night after Chinese New Year and marks the end of the two week long New Year holiday period. During this festival Chinese enjoy the full moon, beautiful lanterns, fireworks, lantern riddles and eat yuanxiao (sweet stuffed dumplings made of glutinous rice flour served in soup) together.


Customs of the Lantern Festival  


Eating Yuanxiao


YuanxiaoEating yuanxiao is an old tradition in China. Yuanxiao are also called tangyuan (sugar balls) in some places. They are a kind of stuffed dumpling made of glutinous rice flour served in soup. Sugar, sesame seeds, bean paste, walnut kernels and jujube powder might be used as yuanxiao fillings. Yuanxiao is also a symbol of staying together, because roundness has the connotation of wholeness and togetherness in Chinese culture. 


Lanterns


LanternThe practice of lighting lanterns on the night of the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year to celebrate what has become known as the Lantern Festival has been going on at least since Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC), the first emperor to unite China. 


Guessing lantern riddles is a popular activity that has been added to the Lantern Festival. It appeared in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Originally people wrote riddles on lanterns and people guessed them. Because lantern riddles are good for exercising the brain and because it generates competition and interest, this activity was formally accepted as part of the Lantern Festival in the Southern Song Dynasty.

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