Lantern Festival 元宵节
The Lantern Festival, in Chinese “元宵节”， is the last day of Chinese Spring Festival. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the first lunar month, th e first full moon night in the lunar calendar. The Lantern Festival symbolizes family reunion.
The most popular activity is watching colorful lanterns“赏花灯(shang hua deng)”. Chinese people make various shapes of lanterns, such as dragons, fish, monkey, and flowers. Guessing riddles written “猜灯谜(cai deng mi)”on lanterns is another popular event, which starts from Song Dynasty (960-1279). People write riddles and paste on lanterns.
The other reason why Chinese people call it “元宵节” is that “元宵(yuanxiao)” is the important Lantern festival food. “Yuanxiao（元宵）” is also called “Tangyuan（汤圆）”. It’s a rice ball with different fillings inside. The fillings include peanut, sesame seeds, rose petals, red bean and lotus. It can be boiled “煮” or deeply fried“炸”. In Chinese, “tangyuan” sounds like another Chinese word “tuanyuan（团圆）”, which means family gathering.
