Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival this year falls on March 4. It's a national carnival to welcome Spring after a long dark cold winter. The other two major traditional festivals in Chinese are Spring Festival and Mid-autumn Festival. The celebrating activities consist of three parts: the daytime Huahui (lively and jolly celebrations), the nighttime Denghui (display of various lanterns) and eating Yuanxiao (sweet dumplings made of glutinous rice flour).

Huahui is held at daytime and mainly on famous streets or in big temples. It's made up of various entertainment activities including yangko opera, stilt walking, landboat rowing and the most fabulous lion dance which, accompanied by the clamors of gongs and drums, always gathers the most spotlight on the site.

Denghui is held at nighttime and it's where Lantern Festival gets its name from, a festival to appreciate various lanterns. Lanterns will be made into various shapes, the lotus flower, the aniseed, the dragon and so on. Yuanxiao to Lantern Festival is the same as dumplings to Spring Festival. It is sweet dumpling made of glutinous rice flour. Traditional Yuanxiao stuffings mainly are hawthorn white sugar, mashed Chinese dates pine nut and sweet bean paste, which are enriched in modern society to include cream, chocolate and so on. Yuanxiao is available at various supermarkets. Long cherished Yuanxiao brands include Daoxiangcun, Gongyifu, Yixinfu and so on.

**More on Lantern Festival photos & facts

** Source from China Daily