View Shopping Cart Your Famous Chinese Account Shopping Help Famous Chinese Homepage China Chinese Chinese Culture Chinese Restaurant & Chinese Food Travel to China Chinese Economy & Chinese Trade Chinese Medicine & Chinese Herb Chinese Art
logo
Search
March 8, 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
Lantern Festival

Wikipedia

 
Image:taiwan_lantern_festival.jpg|right|thumb|Lantern Festival in Taiwan

The Lantern Festival (zh-stp|s=元宵节|t=元宵節|p=yuánxiāojié) is a traditional China|Chinese festival/holiday, which is celebrated by the Chinese in many countries. On the Chinese calendar (a lunar calendar), the Lantern Festival is on the fifteenth day of the first month, making it the first major festival after the Chinese New Year. The Lantern Festival is also known as the Little New Year since it marks the end of the series of celebrations starting from the Chinese New Year.

The Lantern Festival is a Buddhist holiday and is often compared to Halloween. As children go trick-or-treating at night on Halloween, during the Lantern Festival, children go out at night carrying bright lanterns. In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, for only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones; in modern times, lanterns have been embellished with many complex designs. For example, lanterns are now often made in shapes of animals.

Traditionally, the date once served as a day for love and matchmaking. It was one of the few nights without a strict curfew. Young people were chaperoned in the streets in hopes of finding love. Matchmakers acted busily in hopes of pairing couples. Often, those with brightest lanterns were deemed good luck and hope.

Those who do not carry lanterns often enjoy watching informal lantern parades. Other popular activities at this festival include eating tangyuan (zh-stp|s=汤圆|t=湯圓|p=tángyuán), a sweet rice dumpling soup, and guessing lantern riddles, often messages of love.



  • Chap Goh Mei

  • Chinese Valentine's Day

  • Holidays in Taiwan

Category:Chinese holidays
zh:元宵节

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lantern Festival".


Last Modified:   2005-04-13


Search
All informatin on the site is © FamousChinese.com 2002-2005. Last revised: January 2, 2004
Are you interested in our site or/and want to use our information? please read how to contact us and our copyrights.
To post your business in our web site? please click here. To send any comments to us, please use the Feedback.
To let us provide you with high quality information, you can help us by making a more or less donation: