Happy Lantern Festival
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- Issue Time
- Feb 15,2022
Summary
Lantern Festival, one of the traditional Chinese festivals, falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
The first month is the first lunar month. The ancients called "night" "xiao".
The 15th day of the first lunar month is the night of the first full moon in a year, so the 15th day is called "Lantern Festival".
Happy Lantern Festival
Lantern Festival, one of the traditional Chinese festivals, falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month.The first month is the first lunar month. The ancients called "night" "xiao".The 15th day of the first lunar month is the night of the first full moon in a year, so the 15th day is called "Lantern Festival".
On this day, there will be several conventions for celebration.
Eating Yuanxiao
Yuanxiao is the special food for the Lantern Festival. It is believed that Yuanxiao is named after a palace maid, Yuanxiao, of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty. Yuanxiao is a kind of sweet dumpling, which is made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing. And the Festival is named after the famous dumpling. It is very easy to cook - simply dump them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes - and eaten as a dessert.
Guessing lantern riddles
"Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential part of the Festival. Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.
Watch fireworks
In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged. On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival. Some local governments will even organize a fireworks party. On the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.