The Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival 元宵节

The Lantern Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, which is on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month. We celebrate it because it's the first night to see a full moon in a lunar new year. On that evening we make a lot of lanterns with puzzles on the bottom and show the lanterns on the street. People gather to appreciate the colourful lanterns and solve the puzzles. That's why it's called the Lantern Festival.

On that evening we also eat Yuan Xiao, a traditional Chinese food which is like a white rice ball with sugar, sesame, peanuts, walnuts, osmanthus flower, rose petals, jujube paste or other sweet in it. We do that to wish the new year happy and sweet. So the Lantern Festival is also called the Yuan Xiao Festival.