Lantern Festival

After the Spring Festival, there comes the Lantern Festival – on the Lunar Jan. 15^th, it is called as Yuanxiaojie (元(yuán)宵(xiāo)节(jié)), Chundengjie (春(chūn)灯(dēng)节(jié)), Xiaozhengyue (小(xiǎo)正(zhēng)月(yuè)), Yuanxi (元(yuán)夕(xī)), Dengjie (灯(dēng)节(jié)) in China. It is one of an important of traditional Chinese holidays. Do you know how did the Yuanxiao come? The first month of Lunar calendar called as Yuan Yue. And in the old days, Chinese people called the night as Xiao, and on 15^th, it is the first night of the round moon in the year, so people call Jan. 15^th of Lunar calendar as Yuanxiao Jie.

The culture of Lantern Festival in different places in China will be different. Generally speaking, eating sweet rice ball (吃(chī)元(yuán)宵(xiāo)), Guessing Lantern riddles (猜(cāi)灯(dēng)谜(mí)), watching fireworks (看(kàn)烟(yān)火(huǒ)) are the most popular to celebrate Latern Festival.

Sweet rice ball in China called as Yuanxiao, which is a special food for the Lantern Festival. It is said 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 easy to cook – simply dump them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes – and eaten as a desert.

While 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. As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.

On the night of Lantern Festival, you will find many magnificent lanterns and fireworks. 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 first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.