Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2023-02-05 Origin: Site
The end of Lunar New Year celebrations in China is marked by Lantern Festival. Softly glowing lanterns in the shapes of animals are displayed and held.
Chinese Lantern Festival is earmarked with celebrations that make a grand spectacle. Normally, the festivities occur at night in order to fully relish the colours of the spectacles.
The obvious activity is the lighting of lanterns. They traditionally come in round shapes, but as the festival goes hand-in-hand with Chinese New Year, the lanterns also come in animal shapes based on the zodiac animal of the year. Sometimes, riddles with messages of wisdom or fortune are written on the lanterns for viewers to crack. Crowds gather to view colourful light installations of what seems like hundreds of hanging lanterns or prosperous symbols like dragons and gold taels put on display in parks. For some, the vibrant display of lights makes this festival almost synonymous with Chinese Valentine’s Day, as it’s a romantic way to spend the evening.
Other celebrations that take place during Lantern Festival are lion and dragon dance performances, firecrackers and fireworks, and uniting with loved ones over a delicious bowl of sweet glutinous rice dumplings (Tang-Yuan ).
What significance do these practices have? The dragon is symbolic of good luck and represented at all essential >Chinese festivals. The loud noise from firecrackers and fireworks represent protection as legend says their noise scares off demons. Tang yuen soup dumplings filled with sesame, red bean, or peanut paste are eaten with family as their round shape is symbolic of unity.
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