Origin and Customs of the Lantern Festival

The formation of the Lantern Festival has a long process, rooted in the ancient folk custom of opening lanterns to pray for blessings. According to general information and folklore, the 15th day of the first lunar month was already valued in the Western Han Dynasty, but it really became a national folk festival after the Han Dynasty and Wei Dynasty.

The custom of lighting lanterns on the 15th day of the first lunar month began in the Eastern Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Mingdi of Han Dynasty, and its rise was related to the spread of Buddhism to the east. Han Ming emperor reverence for Buddhism, the edict of the first month of the fifteenth day of the Buddha's divine change of light, in order to show the Buddha's great brightness, known as "light table Buddha", since then, the Lantern Lantern custom from the court to the folk, every year on the fifteenth day of the first month of the first month of the year, regardless of the scholars, or the common people have to hang lamps, urban and rural areas are brightly lit all night long. From the Tang Dynasty onwards, the Lantern Festival has become a legal matter.

One of the customs of the Lantern Festival is: eating sweet dumplings. Sweet dumplings are made by wrapping nut traps in glutinous rice flour and making them into small round balls. It is a symbol of reunion.

People also like to see lanterns, which come in all shapes and sizes, and are usually made of bamboo frames and wrapped in coloured paper, containing people's good wishes.

People will step on stilts to celebrate the Lantern Festival, which means high year after year.

Southern Chinese will celebrate the Lantern Festival with dragon and lion dances.

The traditional custom is also to guess lantern riddles, which people like to hang underneath the lanterns.