Beijing, 15 February 2022 (TDI): The Lantern Festival of China is celebrated joyfully in the country. This festival is held on the 15th day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar.
It is also the grand finale of the Chinese New Year celebrations. Streets are decorated with beautiful lanterns. People enjoy rice balls and dumplings called Yuanxiao for celebrations.
The Lantern Festival in China is regarded as the end of the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. In it, many traditional activities such as eating Yuanxiaos, watching lanterns, and guessing riddles are enjoyed by the masses.
For example, people go out to look at the moon, send up flying lanterns, have a meal, enjoy their leisure time in parks. This festival is also known as the traditional Chinese “Valentine’s Day”.
To celebrate the Lantern Festival, lanterns lit up across China. Chinese people enjoyed the festive mood in different cities. People ate glutinous rice balls called Tang Yuan filled with sweet sesame paste or peanut butter.
Children went out at night carrying paper lanterns and solving riddles on the lanterns. The celebrations were broadcasted LIVE for the public.
The Spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying shared the greeting of the Lantern Festival while emphasizing the mascot of the Winter Olympics, Beijing2020. These are Dwen Dwen and Shuey RhonRhon as well as the famous food of this festival, the sweet dumplings called ‘Yuanxiao’.
The Chinese Cultural Counsellor also greeted people for celebrations by sharing the local custom of crossing the bridges with a lantern in hand, which helps ward off diseases.
Foreigners joined Lantern Festival
The foreigners living in China also enjoyed the festivals, lantern riddles, making sweet dumplings and lanterns. They helped each other by sharing the recipes etc.
An American ex-pat living in south China’s Zhongshan shared his explored local culture and traditional customs to celebrate the Lantern Festival through a video.
The Lantern Festival also called Shangyuan Festival is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar, during the full moon.
The Gregorian Calendar usually falls in mid-February or early March, marking the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations also called Spring Festival. This festival became significant as early as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE–25 CE).
The lanterns traditions in past were fairly simple, and only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones. In modern times, lanterns have been elaborated with many complex designs, for example, the shape of animals.
Last, but not least, the lanterns are colored red to symbolize good fortune. Also, people enjoy this celebration as a symbol of past experiences and future endeavors. For all these reasons:
‘The Diplomatic Insight’ (TDI) wishes you all a Happy New Year of the Chinese Lunar calendar!
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