The lantern festival:
The lantern festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar every year by Chinese and overseas Chinese which marks the final important festival of the Chinese New Year. Trace back to Western Han Dynasty, it had already become a significant festival with specific implications.
Meaning:
The meaning of the Lantern Festival is to pray for a harvest, the birthday of the emperor of Heaven, admiring the moon and the last day of the definition of the traditional Chinese New Year. The Lantern festival is the first full moon night of a new year and the symbol of spring.
Special meaning:
Lantern Festival is also a romantic festival in Chinese traditional festivals. In ancient society, Lantern Festival provided an opportunity for unmarried men and women to get acquainted.Young girls in traditional society were not allowed to go out in ordinary days , but they can go outside to celebrate the Lantern festival.So this became a special day for unmarried people to find a valentine.That is why the Lantern Festival can be called Chinese Valentine’s Day.
Cultural values:
Chinese traditional festival customs have met the comprehensive needs of the masses of the Chinese society in terms of material, spiritual, ethical and aesthetic levels. Speaking of the level of material life, traditional Chinese festivals have many unique foods for different festivals. During the Lantern Festival, families gather to eat tangyuan which is a kind of Chinese dumplings, the Chinese pronunciation of tangyuan is similar with reunion which means happiness and harmony.
Customs:
There are so many activities which are the ways for people to celebrate the Lantern festival from ancient times to the present, such as going out to enjoy the moon,setting off fireworks,solving riddles on the lanterns,having yuanxiao or tangyuan,carrying paper lanterns,walking on stilts, rowing boats, twisting yangko and other folk performances.
There are no national boundaries for festival culture, so does the Lantern festival. Nowadays, increasingly people celebrate the lantern festival and this traditional festival will last always and forever.