Chinese traditions are amazingly meaningful and so interesting to learn. With all the colors, rituals, activities, and symbolism, their celebrations are one of a kind. People all over the world love to submerge themselves in this culture to understand more about what everything means and how they can celebrate it to the fullest.
As for the Lantern Festival, we can say it is one of their most mesmerizing traditions that surely we’ve all seen at least once in movies, pictures or social media, and having the opportunity to experience it in real life is something that
Origin of the Lantern Festival
There are many stories behind the origin of this celebration and even though none of them have been claimed as the ultimate one, some are more popular than others; as it is the case with its supposed Buddhist origin.
According to this story, it was Emperor Ming from the Han dynasty who introduced this event to his country’s traditions when Buddhism was still growing within the population. He was such an advocate for this religion, that when he saw that Buddhist monks would light lanterns inside their temples to honor Budha on the 15th of the first Lunar month, he immediately ordered everyone to do the same thing on that date, and from there, it became a custom of Chinese culture.
On another hand, there is a legend that also has to do with the Han dynasty and whose main character is Yuan-Xiao, a maid who hadn’t seen her family since she started serving the crown and was desperate to see them again. One day, the Emperor’s favorite adviser found her, and after listening to her wish, decided to help her by spreading the belief that, on the 13th of the Lunar day, the God of Fire would send a fairy to burn down the village.
The story reached everyone, including the Emperor who asked the same adviser on what to do in order to avoid that catastrophe. Dongfang Shuo (the teller) told him that everyone needed to prepare dumplings, hang red lanterns and explode fireworks in order to worship the fairy and the God of Fire. At the same time, the people had to also take their lanterns with them and go see all the decorations and fireworks outside their houses, that way the city would look as if it was on fire and hopefully both divinities would have mercy on them.
So everyone did as they were told. Yuan-Xiao prepared the best dumplings ever and when people came out to see the “celebration”, she could finally reunite with her family again. Since then, the Emperor ordered to do the same thing every year and this event got to be known as the Yuan-Xiao Festival due to the amazing dumplings she prepared.
How to celebrate it in the correct way
The Lantern Festival (also known as Yuanxiao Festival), is celebrated on the 15th day of the first Lunar month, commemorating the end of the Chinese New Year celebration and the first full moon of this same month.
At this event, the streets are decorated with colorful lanterns with riddles on them, people eat tangyuan (sweet rice balls)and everyone enjoys watching all the dragon/lion dances that are performed as a symbol of bravery and strength (lion’s attributes) as well as good fortune (dragon’s attributes).
Aside from those, the act of lighting red lanterns and letting them go works as a ritual for good luck while releasing the past and lighting up the year that is ahead to come.
This beautiful festival has been held by this culture for more than 2000 years and it is said that about one-sixth of the population celebrates this date all over the world (not only in Asian countries). Some people do it in a modern way, others stick to its traditional version, but either way, everyone seems to enjoy every moment of it.