Lantern Festival

The first full-moon night after the Spring Festival is Yuanxiao Festival.“Yuan” means the first lunar month,“Xiao” meaning night.Yuanxiao Festival is also known as Lantern Festival for the main activity of this festival is watching lanterns at night,or the Upper Yuan Festival as it falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month,which is known as Upper Yuan (the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month and the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month are known as Middle Yuan and Lower Yuan).

If the Spring Festival is a festival for reunion,then Lantern Festival is a carnival.As the saying goes: “Celebrating Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month” highlights the whole tone of celebration.Different from Spring Festival,when people stay at home,on the day of Lantern Festival,people will throng the streets,set off fireworks,watch lanterns,take part in the Yangko dance,guess the meaning of lantern riddles,as well as walk on stilts,perform the boat,dragon and lion dance,etc.The streets are full of excitement.

There are a variety of folk legends about the origin of Lantern Festival,two of which are famous.

One is that,long time ago,a celestial goose accompanying the Jade Emperor was killed by the people for destroying their crops.The Jade Emperor was so annoyed that he ordered the troops from heaven to set fire to the Earth before and after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.The Jade Emperor’s kind-hearted daughter secretly spread the news to the Earth,allowing wise men to propose countermeasures.On the fourteenth,fifteenth and sixteenth days of the first lunar month,each household hung up red lanterns and each person carried a lantern and set off fireworks and crackers.When he saw from Heaven that the Earth was filled with light of fire,the Jade Emperor thought he had avenged the celestial goose.In order to commemorate this successful outsmarting of the Jade Emperor,the people ever since have used lanterns and streamers as decorations on every fifteenth day of the first lunar month and so the Lantern Festival came into being.

The other legend is associated with Dongfang Shuo,a courtier favored by Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD) for his sense of humor.One day,he saved a maid named Yuan Xiao,who wanted to commit suicide for she felt she had no chance to get out of the palace to see her long-missed family.Dongfang Shuo was so sympathetic he decided to help her.First,he spread the rumor that the god of fire would burn Chang’an City in order to create a panic.He then proposed to Emperor Wu to mobilize the people in the whole city to hang up lanterns,set off fireworks and crackers,and consecrate Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) to the god of fire on the fifteenth and sixteenth days of the first lunar month.Emperor Wu adopted Dongfang Shuo’s recommendation and led the maids out of the palace and strolled around the lanterns together with the ordinary people in Chang’an city,and Yuan Xiao was finally able to meet her family.After a bustling night,the god of fire did not burn the Chang’an city as expected.Emperor Wu was so pleased that he ordered the consecrating of Tangyuan to the god of fire on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month each year and setting off fireworks and crackers on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month each year.Since Lady Yuan Xiao could make the best Tangyuan,people call it Tangyuan Yuanxiao,thus giving rise to Yuanxiao Festival.

These two legends are actually not the origin of Lantern Festival,though they have been widely circulated.According to expert research,it originated from the worship of the ancient people to Taiyi,also known as the god Polaris,which lasted from dusk to dawn.Decorating with colorful lights was a must.Thanks to the promotional efforts of the Han Dynasty emperors,the Lantern Festival finally became fixed at this time (206 BC-220 AD).

Lantern Festival

However,celebration of the festival did not prevail until the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907).Later,in the Song,Yuan,Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911),Lantern Festival holidays were increased from three to ten days,with increasing types and patterns of lanterns.In the Song Dynasty (960-1279),there appeared the practice of pasting riddles on the lanterns.It is said that the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty Wang Anshi was particularly good at making riddles,“The character ‘目’ (meaning eye) is added (meaning ‘加’ in Chinese) with two dot strokes,but the answer is not the character ‘贝’ (meaning shellfish) (the answer is the character ‘贺’,meaning congratulation)” is his masterworks.The elegant custom of guessing riddles while watching lanterns has continued for a thousand years until today.

In ancient times,women were not allowed to step out of home at random,so the Lantern Festival was a day of liberation for them and a time when they might encounter the person of their heart.In this regard,the ancients made many beautiful descriptions.For example,Xin Qiji’s “Having searched for him hundreds and thousands of times in the crowd,suddenly you turn back,and he is there by the dim light” (Qing Yu An: Yuanxi) expressed the feelings of surprise; while Ouyang Xiu’s Sheng Cha Zi: Yuanxi:“On the Lantern Festival Eve last year,with all the lanterns lit,it’s like daytime.Above the top of the willow was the moon,and a date was there when dusk was gone.On the Lantern Festival Eve this year,the moon and the lanterns are unchanged.But the one I met last year is gone,tears wet my sleeves.” expressed the distracted feelings.

Festival food,of course,cannot be excluded at any traditional event like this.Yuanxiao is a festival food shared by North and South China.It did take on this role until the Song Dynasty,and,indeed,the name of “Yuanxiao” only appeared in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when “Yuanxiao”,“Tangyuan” and “Yuanzi” were all used.Northern Chinese now call it Yuanxiao,while Southern Chinese use Tangyuan or Yuanzi.The method of preparation differs slightly between the two regions.In the North,the stuffing is prepared first,after which one sprinkles a bit of water and rolls it in dried glutinous rice flour; in the South,it is bit like making Jiaozi dumplings filling the made of glutinous rice flour with the stuffing.Also,they taste different - the outer skin of the Northern Yuanxiao is pliable,while that of the Southern Tangyuan is soft and glutinous.

The Spring Festival does not end until the Lantern Festival is over.