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January 15 of Chinese Lunar CalendarCustom: Eating Yuanxiao on the Lantern Festival
Today is the 15th day of the 1st month in Lunar Calendar. Today is commonly celebrated by all Chinese people as Yuan Xiao Jie (元宵节) or more well known as Lantern Festival in English. This festival is also called Shang Yuan Jie (上元节).
The 15th day of the 7th lunar month is Zhong Yuan Jie (中元节, or Hunger Ghost Festival in English) and the 15th day of the 10th lunar month is Xia Yuan Jie (下元节).Shang Yuan Jie or Yuan Xiao Jie is a major festival in China. And the activities of Chinese New Year will reach a high point on this day.Early on the morning of this day, there will be dragon dancing and lion dancing parades in the streets, and all the streets will be crowded with people. The happiest moment comes in the evening of this day. In the evening, families will go out together to enjoy the glorious full moon and appreciate colourful lanterns and also solve the lantern riddles. In some places of China, people even fly Kongming Lantern (孔明灯, as shown on the top right hand corner in my drawing) which their beautiful wishes are written.
元宵 (yuan xiao) is a traditional food made of glutinous rice flour. Glutinous rice flour is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls with sweet filling (e.g. Black sesame as shown in my drawing and peanuts or red beans) and is then cooked and served in boiling water.
元宵是一种传统食物，它由糯米粉制成。糯米粉混合着少量的水做成球，里面填充甜的芯（例如图上画的黑芝麻或是花生或是红豆），然后用开水煮熟并端上桌。This food is usually eaten together with family. The round shape of the balls and the bowls where they are served, come to symbolise the family togetherness and reunion. This food is also known as Tang Yuan (汤圆). According to the legend, during the period of Yuan Shikai’s (袁世凯) rule from AD 1912 to 1916, he disliked the name Yuan Xiao (元宵) because it sounded identical to “remove Yuan” (袁消), and so he gave orders to change the name to Tang Yuan. This day officially marks the end of Chinese New Year celebration.元宵通常是与家人一同食用。装着圆形的元宵的碗象征着家庭的和睦、团圆。这也被叫做汤圆。据说，从公元1912到1916年的袁世凯时期，他不喜欢“元宵”这个名字，因为这听起来像“袁消”。于是，他命令改名叫“汤圆”。这天也正式标志着新年的结束。
科普小知识
外国人通常会把带馅的东西都叫作dumpling，比如说饺子、包子、烧卖、馄饨、粽子、锅贴、汤圆等，但是这些东西在中国其实还都是有区别的，地域不同，做法也不同，吃法就更不同了。
Jiaozi（饺子）的英语可翻译为jiaozi ，Chinese ravioli 或者dumpling 。意大利语里面有个词叫做ravioli，中文意思是饺子，但是实际上并不是中国饺子，而是一种欧洲食品。根据字典定义和国际惯例，似乎ravioli比dumpling更接近中国的饺子。但习惯成自然，dumpling还是更被我们国人所熟知。水饺boiled dumplings 蒸饺steamed dumplings 。如果饺子用油煎炸，那就被称作是“锅贴”（guotie/potstickers）。
在中国，还有其他的当普林类型，如馄饨（wonton）、虾饺（har kao）、烧卖（ siew mai）、小笼包（small cage-steamed bun/xiaolongbao）、粽子（rice dumpling wrapped in reed leaves），猪肉包和水晶包子（crystal dumpling）。
包子通常翻译为steamed stuffed bun/bao zi ，狗不理包子的英文说法是Go-believe ，肉包子打狗--有去无回的英文是Chasing a dog by throwing meat dumplings at it-gone， never to return. 小笼包子 steamed small dumpling in basket 。
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过年习俗之正月十四：春夜猜灯谜