Chinese Festivals: Lantern Festival

The Chinese Lantern Festival is coming soon. What do you know about this festival?

According to the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, Chinese Spring Festival(Chinese New Year), begins with the New Moon and ends on the Full Moon, which is from the first to the 15th day of the first lunar month in a new year. The last day (the 15th day of the first lunar month) of the New Year is known as the Lantern Festival. In that way, the Lantern Festival is a‘festival within a festival’ and it is considered the ending point of the Spring Festival.

According to the historical records, the festival began to prevail during the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 24 A .D.) and flourished during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 A .D.) and Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 A .D.). Its present name is in fact derived from the Tang Dynasty custom of hanging out lanterns on the night of the festival. Lantern can break darkness, illuminate the land as well as bring brightness and hope to people. Therefore the Lantern Festival has been observed and celebrated by people all over the country for more than 1,000 years.

What are the customs of the Lantern Festival? Let’s take a look together.

  • Enjoy Beautiful Lanterns

At the night of the festival, temples and parks are decorated with colourful lanterns made of paper, gauze and glass, painted with legendary figures, landscapes as well as the flowers and birds. After dinner, Chinese people like to walk around parks to enjoy the beautiful lanterns.

  • Guess Lantern Riddles

Guessing lantern riddles is a typical activity during the Lantern Festival that has been practiced since ancient times. Firstly, Chinese people hang colourful lanterns and fire firecrackers to celebrate the lantern festival, then they write riddles on papers and stick them on the lanterns for people to guess. Lantern riddles add to the festive atmosphere, showing the wisdom of the ancient working people and their yearning for a better life. Every year plenty of people take part in the lantern riddles guessing, which has gradually become an indispensable element of the Lantern Festival.

  • Play Lion Dance

During the Lantern Festival or assembly celebrations, people use lion dances to cheer. This custom has a history of more than a thousand years. It is usually completed by three people, two dressed up as lions, one as a lion head, one as a lion body, and the third one as a lion guide. The dance incorporates elements of Chinese civil and martial art. Civil arts express the taming of the lion, such as shaking hair and rolling, and the martial arts express the fierceness of the lion, including prancing, kicking, and rolling.

  • Play Dragon Dance

Since ancient times, China has been relying on agriculture. Good weather and rain are very important for producing harvest and life, and the ancient Chinese believed that the dragon had the function of calling the wind and rain, eliminating disasters and epidemics. Therefore, ancient Chinese people tried their best to get the protection of the dragon, thus forming the custom of dragon dancing during sacrifice or the Lantern Festival. When performing, these dragons circulated and exulted, and their movements were very complicated. During the Lantern Festival, there are more than a hundred “dragons” in some places, and the length of the team can even exceed 1 km. Each dragon team is accompanied by ten gongs and drums of spectacular size and sound.

  • Walk on stilts

Stilt walking is a popular folk performance of group skills. It is said that the ancient Chinese tied two long sticks to their legs in order to gather wild fruits from trees for food, which gradually developed into a kind of stilt walking activity. Stilt performers, walking on stilts, can perform such movements as sword dance, splitting, jumping stool, crossing the table, and yangge dance. Depending on their character, they have difference costumes and heights. Their lively performance includes singing, laughing and having fun, walking on the ground. The performers’ funny looks always attracts great interest among the audience.

  • Eat Yuanxiao (sweet round dumplings)

The trademark food of the Lantern Festival is called 元宵(yuán xiāo). It’s also known as 汤圆 (tāng yuán) in the South, and it’s one of the many tasty Chinese New Year desserts. On the Lantern Festival, every household eats Yuan Xiao. That’s why the Lantern Festival is also called Yuanxiao Festival.

Yuanxiao are filled with sugar, roses, sesame, red bean paste, cinnamon, walnuts, nuts, jujube puree, etc. They are wrapped in rice flour into a round shape. They can be cooked in soup, deep-fried, and steamed, but are usually boiled and served in hot water.

They represent family reunions because 汤圆 (tāng yuán) sounds similar to “reunion” (团圆 / tuán yuán). Some businessmen also call this dessert 元宝 (yuán bǎo), meaning gold or silver ingots.

Despite being a night of fun and celebration, the Lantern Festival is also a night for families. Before Chinese New Year holiday ends, the family should reunite again. Take a break from the celebrations and relax with your family. Reconnect under the moon. Enjoy firework shows and performances while eating a bowl of yuan xiao.

This is China’s Lantern Festival! I hope you like it.


Jingwei Dong received her bachelor’s degree in Clinical Medicine from Lanzhou University and her master’s degree in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages from Beijing Language and Culture University. She has obtained the certificate of an international Chinese language teacher and she loves teaching. She is good at traditional Chinese painting and loves paper-cutting, calligraphy, dancing and other traditional Chinese arts. She hopes to communicate more with people from other countries and share cultural knowledge and experiences.