Origin of the Lantern Festival and a Detailed Explanation of the Traditional Customs of the Fifteenth Day of the First Lunar Month

The Lantern Festival, also known as the Shangyuan Festival or the Festival of Lights, falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. It is the first important traditional festival after the Spring Festival and also the first full-moon night of the new year. As for its origin, several folk accounts have been passed down, and the more widely held view is that it is related to sacrificial and lamp-lighting activities of the Han dynasty; in later dynasties it was continually enriched and developed, and by the Tang and Song dynasties it had evolved into a grand festival in which everyone enjoyed lantern displays and merrymaking.

The customs of the Lantern Festival are rich and varied. The most representative is eating yuanxiao or tangyuan, whose round shape symbolizes family reunion and a happy life. Admiring decorative lanterns and guessing lantern riddles are equally indispensable; lantern fairs everywhere come in many styles, and people find it great fun to look at the lanterns while guessing the riddles. In addition, folk performances such as dragon and lion dances, stilt walking and yangge dancing are also very common, and the lively atmosphere has given this day the name "making merry at the Lantern Festival."

From the perspective of farming, the Lantern Festival marks the end of the Spring Festival customs, and there is a folk saying that only after the fifteenth day is the new year truly over. After the festival the festive mood gradually fades, temperatures rise step by step, and people begin to put their farm tools in order and prepare seeds, making plans for the spring plowing and production that lies ahead. In some areas there used to be a custom of praying for favorable weather around the time of the Lantern Festival, expressing farming families' hopes for a year of good harvest.

It should be noted that yuanxiao and tangyuan are not exactly the same. In the north, yuanxiao is mostly made by rolling it in a hand-shaken manner, while in the south people are accustomed to wrapping filling in glutinous rice dough to make tangyuan, so the textures differ slightly. These foods are mostly made from glutinous rice, which is quite sticky and not easy to digest, so they should be eaten in moderation, and the elderly and children in particular should chew carefully and swallow slowly.