Lantern Festival
Special Food During Lantern Festival – Chinese Folklore
Another important part of the Lantern Festival is eating small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour, called yuanxiao or tangyuan. It symbolizes family unity, completeness and happiness.
The fillings inside the dumplings or yuangxiao are either sweet or salty. Sweet fillings are made of sugar, walnuts, sesame, osmanthus flowers, rose petals, sweetened tangerine peel, bean paste, or jujube paste. A single ingredient or any combination can be used as the filling. The salty variety is filled with minced meat, vegetables or a mixture.
Things Chinese Do in Lantern Festival – Chinese Folklore
Now the lantern had become an occasion for people to entertain themselves and have fun. During the Lantern Festival, lanterns of various shapes and sized are hung in the streets, attracting countless visitors.
Children will hold self-made or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets, extremely excited. In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, for only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones; in modern times, lantern are now often made in shapes of animals.
Other popular activities at this festival include eating tangyuan, a sweet glutinous rice dumpling served in a sugary soup, and guessing lantern riddles, often messages of love.Besides, there may be fireworks performances. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in Lantern Festival. 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.
In the daytime of the Festival, people may also watch performances such as dragon lantern dancing, lion dancing, land boat dancing, yangge dancing, stilt dancing, etc.
Origin of Lantern Festival – Chinese Folklore
Chinese started to celebrate the Lantern Festival since the Han Dynasty (206BC-221AD). It was a time when Buddhism flourished. One emperor ordered to light lanterns in the imperial palace and temples to show respect to Buddha on the fifteenth in day of the first lunar month.
Later, this Buddhist rite gradually developed into a grand festival among common people and its influence expanded from the Central Plains to the whole of China.
The Lantern Festival became popular during the Tang and Song Dynasties as a day for love and matchmaking. It was one of the few nights in ancient times without a strict curfew. Young girls were chaperoned in the streets in hopes of finding love. Matchmakers acted busily in hopes of pairing couples. The brightest lanterns were symbolic of good luck and hope.
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