Chinese New Year - The Lantern Festival

After reading the "Chinese new year" article, you should know the Chinese new years' celebration starts on the first day of the year. But does it end? Well, the full celebration finishes on another very important Chinese festival - the Lantern Festival (Yuan Xiao Jie - 元宵节) which is the first full moon of the new year, January 15th in the Chinese lunar calendar. It is probably the most interesting festival among all because of the unique celebration activities, such as: riddle-guess in lantern, fireworks display, eat sweet glutinous dumplings and of course, the lantern display with a huge crowd gives the Chinese New Year celebration a perfect ending.

The Lantern Festival was established by a Chinese emperor approximately 2000 years ago. The Emperor gave orders that all people light lamps at that night to show respect to Buddha. Today, in city parks or in the open squares, various kinds of lanterns are highly hung and displayed: palace lantern, running horse lantern, flower-and-plant lantern, etc. It often becomes the largest local gathering of the year. The philosophy is simple, during the first few days of Chinese new year (Spring Festival), you spend time with your filmily members and friends. On the last day of the Chinese new year celebration - the lantern festival, you come out and enjoy the holiday atmosphere with millions of others, make some new friends.

A special kind of dumpling is prepared for the Lantern Festival. It is a round dumpling made of glutinous rice flour with sweet fillers such as sweet scented osmanthus, sesame seed, sweetened bean paste, Chinese hawthorn or plain sugar. It is boiled or fried when eaten.

Because the Lantern Festival is taking place on the evening of the first full moon of a year, it implies "a happy reunion" and a wonderful conclusion to the two weeks long Chinese new year celebration.