In This Article, We Are Going to Discuss Regarding Chinese Lanterns Festival as a Symbol of Peace
The Chinese lantern festival is celebrated by people every year on the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month. Celia Wang is fascinated by the Chinese Lantern Festival and the corresponding activities. Celia Wang (celiawang1988@163.com) teaches Chinese to foreign students of all ages online via Skype and in person in Shanghai. Recently she was looking for the best SAT prep course for her sister and visited her friends in the province of Yunnan.
Activities and Events
For the Chinese, each holiday has its own set of activities. When it is a lantern festival, people perform different things.
- Lighting and Watching Lantern
During this festival, different sizes and shapes of lanterns are seen everywhere including households, shopping malls, parks, streets, and various tourist points. Children may hold small lanterns and roam around the streets.
The vivid artwork is created on the lantern to demonstrate traditional Chinese images and symbols such as fruits, flowers, birds, animals, people, and buildings.
People believe that a lighting lantern is a way to pray to God and receive a blessing from him to have a smooth future for them and their families. Even the woman who aspires to get pregnant would walk under a hanging lantern praying for a child.
- Guessing Lantern Riddles
The owners of lanterns write riddles on paper and paste them upon the colorful lanterns. The crowd around guess the riddles. Solving and guessing riddles, started in the Song Dynasty (960- 1276) which is one of the most important and popular activities. If someone from the crowd guesses the right answer, they can pull the middle off and go to the lantern owner to check their answer. If the answer is right, they usually receive a small gift as a prize.
The activity of guessing riddles is interesting and informative; it has now become popular and played among all social strata.
- Lion Dance
It is one of the most outstanding traditional folk dances in China. It originated back to the Three Kingdom period (220-280). The highly-trained performers dress in a costume of the lion, to symbolize bravery and strength. They also showcase dance on the streets, to drive away evil and protect people and their livestock. This lion dance is performed at the important events, especially on the lantern festival, to ward off evil and pray for good luck and freedom.
The dance is performed under the guidance of drum beat, gong, and cymbals. They jump, roll, and do different acts such as walking on stilts.
Now, the lion dance has spread too many different countries with overseas Chinese and is quite popular in Malaysia and Singapore. The Chinese dance or dragon dance is done to celebrate all other important events and spring festival every year.
- Eating Tangyuan
Tangyuan is eaten at the Lantern Festival. It is one of the important customs, people eat these ball-shaped dumplings that are made up of rice flour and are stuffed with different fillings such as white & brown sugar, sesame seeds, peanuts, walnuts, rose petals, bean paste and jujube paste. The balls can be served boiled, fried, or streamed. They are customarily served in fermented rice soup called tianjiu.
The balls are served to the whole family with a belief that these round shape balls and their bowls symbolizes wholeness and togetherness. While eating this popular dish Chinese people express their best wishes for family and their future lives.
At last
If you ever get a chance to book yourself for the Chinese lantern festivals, then don’t think twice. This festival is full of wonderful experiences and colourful lanterns. This festival is celebrated in public places that offer tourists to experience the lantern festival spiritually and enthusiastically.
So, get ready to dive into the most colourful and amazing festival this year!
