Customs of the Chinese Lantern Festival

The annual Chinese Lantern Festival is one of the most important and long-going traditional festivals in China, ang there are various customs of this special festival in different areas in China, but in most districts there are three customs as following:

Custom 1: Eating Yuanxiao

Yuanxiao is the special food for the Chinese Lantern Festival, and it is also named Tangyuan in Chinese. It is believed that Yuanxiao is named after a palace maid, Yuanxiao, of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty.

Yuanxiao is a kind of sweet dumpling, which is made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing.And the Festival is named after the famous dumpling.

It is very easy to cook - simply dump them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes - and eaten as a desert.

Custom 2: Guessing Lantern Riddles

"Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential part of the Festival.

Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift.

The activity emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.


Custom 3: Watching Fireworks

In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged.

On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival.

And on the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.

* Originally archive: Customs of the Chinese Lantern Festival

Chinese Valentine's Day - The Qixi Festival is Coming!

The traditional Qixi Festival in China is coming soon (will fall on August 16), the Qixi Festival is also called as the Chinese Valentine’s day, the Chinese Valentine's Day falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. In China, this day is also known as "The Begging Festival".



Festival Origin: The seventh daughter of the Emperor of Heaven, the Weaving Maid, and an orphaned cowherd were separated by the Emperor; the girl was forced to move to the star Vega and the cowherd, to the star Altair. They were only allowed to meet on the magpie bridge over the Milky Way once a year on the day of seventh day of seventh lunar month - Chinese Valentine's Day.

The "Begging” custom of Qixi is a time-honored custom in China, on this day young girls will not only beg for wonderful needlework skills, but also begging for a good marriage.

On that night, unmarried girls prayed to the Weaving Maid star (Vega) for the special gift. When the star Vega was high up in the sky, girls performed a small test by placing a needle on the water's surface: If the needle did not sink, the girl was considered to be ready to find a husband. Once a year, on this day, girls could wish for anything their hearts desired.



So I wonder on the day of ‘Qixi’ this year, how many grils will pray silently under the stars?

In truth, as said to praying for a marriage, I wonder that is depends on the predestination, if you two are predestined to be together, so no matter what happened you two will meet, fall in love and been together finally.

Now, here, I wish All shall be well, and Jack shall have Jill!

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts in China