Lantern Festival
Lantern Festival is a Chinese holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, which falls on Friday, March 2nd, this year. It is the first full moon in the New Year which symbolizes the arrival of spring and marks as the end of Chinese New Year celebrations. Lantern Festival is accounted as one of the two traditional Valentine’s days in China, same as Qi Xi 七夕 (Qi Qiao 七巧) Festival. It is also called differently in various parts of China; for example, Shang Yuan Festival (上元节) in Northern China and Yuan Xiao Festival (元宵节) in Southern China. In fact, Lantern Festival has a long history which was documented as early as the Western Han Dynasty between 206 BCE and 25 CE.
Food:
The food must-eat during the Lantern Festival is the sweet rice dumplings/balls (Tang Yuan). They have fillings such as sesame paste, red bean paste, taro paste, peanut paste, mix, or just as is with no fillings at all. They are often cooked in rock/brown sugar syrup with ginger slices. The round shape and sticky quality of rice balls signify the togetherness and pleasantness of a happy family, which is also regarded to bring good luck to the family in the year. Most importantly, gingers are widely believed to aid fending off the cold.
The Market Fair:
In olden times, families and friends went to the market fair in town in the evening to guess riddles written on lanterns, to watch acrobatics, and to try all the tasty street food. People could sometimes get a free lantern from the shop owner if they could answer all riddles in the shop. On top of that, some civil organizations would work with the authorities to hold a riddle-guessing competition that only the best of the best could be crowned the champion (Zhuang Yuan 状元).
The name of Lantern Festival spoke for itself which people carried colorful paper lanterns with them when they went out to the fair. At home, people put up a pair of red lanterns in their front doors for decorations. The ones that people carried with them were usually in shapes of animals, lotus, or hexagons with paintings of beautiful ladies or/and verses from famous poetry; the ones that people put up at home were commonly in red (white lanterns were not allowed) and had good expressions written in gold.
Truth to be told, in the past, Lantern Festival was the only chance that young adults could have a look at their future spouse because they were not allowed to see each other before getting married. Sometimes, for single people to find love, lantern sellers would sell the same shape or same color of lanterns separately to a male customer and a female customer. The two could search for their match, which fromtime to time, become potential date or prospective marriage partner.
Last but not least, riddle-guessing, lantern decorations, and market fairs are still common practices in every Lantern Festival.
International celebrations:
Since ancient time, China has been having a significant influence in countries nearby, for example, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and many others. Without a doubt, Lantern Festival was brought to them as part of the cultural exchange. In Korea, Lantern Festival is translated into many names, but it is commonly known as “정월대보름” (jeong-woldaeboleum). In Japan, it is called as“小正月”(Koshōgatsu). In Vietnam, it is known as “Rằm Tháng Giêng”. In Indonesia, the festival is called the Cap Go Meh (十五名) or "15th darkness" festival in Fujian (Hokkien) language. Even though Lantern Festival is called differently, it is always celebrated on the 15th day of the first month of the Lunar New Year.
Author: Enid Chiu