The Lantern Festival: Wish You Good Luck and Happiness

Editor's Note

The Lantern Festival, in which watching lanterns is the most typical activity, falls on the 15th day of the first month of lunar calendar, marking the end of Chinese New Year celebrations. In this festival, people around the country will eat "Yuan Xiao", a kind of sweet dumplings made of glutinous rice flour, and that's why it's called "Yuan Xiao Festival" in Chinese. 

There are many customs in the Lantern Festival. On this day, people will decorate their houses with self-made or bought lanterns with various shapes and sizes, showing their wishes to the coming days. The lantern owners will also write riddles on a piece of paper and put them in the lanterns. Visitors can use problem-solving skills to answer the riddles. Hints are provided to indicate whether the answer is a person, place, thing or idiom.

Here, we got you some lantern riddles.

 What's full of holes but still holds water?

click to see the answer

Which is faster? Hotness or coldness?

click to see the answer

What goes up every year, but never comes back down?

click to see the answer

The Lantern Festival marks the end of the whole Spring Festival. And here, we'd like to take you back to review the fantastic traditions in the Spring Festival, and to see how CCNUers around the world celebrate it.

Paste Spring Festival Couplets and "Fu"

Pasting Spring Festival couplets and "fu" has been a Chinese tradition for thousands of years, which express Chinese people's longing for a better life in the coming new year.

Have New Year Dinner

On the evening of New Year's Eve, the whole family will gather together to have a great meal. Nationwide, fish is always served, for it has the same sound with Chinese character "余", which means "surplus in the year". And in different places, different dished may be served. For example, in the southwest of China, people have sausage and preserved meat in the great meal.

Visit Relatives and Friends

From the first day of new year, Chinese people bring gifts to visit relatives and friends. Children will get red packets from the elder as new year wishes.

Also, we have invited some CCNUers to share the activities they did to celebrate the Spring Festival!

Gao Xuan

-Law School, from Jilin, China-

In Jilin, like many other northern regions, we make "花馍" (a kind of wheat buns usually accompanied with a red date on its top and made into various shapes). Skilled cooks also make dedicate ones with colored doughs. And for kids, these soft doughs do provide them unlimited creative space. And they can be made into a hedgehog, a flower, a fish or maybe something hard to identify.

Coldness cannot stop our enthusiasm to hang out with friends and families. Outside the house, thick layers of snow make it possible for us to ski and experience the same pleasure as athletes in Winter Olympics. Besides, snow tube can be an easier choice with the same joy. You just need get on your snow tube, grasp the handle, slide down the slope and enjoy great excitement!

 Mia

-The School of Education, from Wuyuan, Jiangxi, China-

In the course of the Spring Festival, migrant workers and students all come back, making the village more lively than usual. And villagers begin to prepare feasts to celebrate the annual reunion, which makes this festival even more lively. The feast is usually big and lasts throughout the day.

For breakfast, long noodles symbolizing the longevity and Zi Gao (a kind of sticky rice cake along with eggs and meat) symbolizing multiple-child are served.

After breakfast, people will get together in the yard to see or join the process of making sesame mochi, which will be guests' lunch then. A great mochi needs to be pounded repeatedly for hundreds of times. At last, just sprinkle some sesame and sugar on it and you can enjoy it. 

And then it comes to the final big event--dinner. There will be more than 10 courses for each table. People that are good at cooking will always show their capabilities. They are well organized and have a clear division of work. They are from different families and help mutually when there is a feast. The tables and chairs for guests are usually from different families, too. I think that a village is like a big family. In dialects, we call having feasts "do good things". I guess the goodness just lies in people's pure hospitality and mutual kindness.

Feleisha Sushane Taylor Harris

-School of Economics and Business Administration, from Jamaica-

I stay in Wuhan with my close friends this year. During the Spring Festival, we share great meals and laughter together. And I have learnt to make dumplings! Additionally, I received amazing gifts from our school and also red packet from my friends and teachers. In future, I wish I can accompany one of my Chinese friends to his or her home city and stay a while with his or her family to experience the Spring Festival in its totality.

I am really thankful that I am safe and surrounded by loved ones even though I am far away from home. In the year of tiger, I hope that everyone of you can be as fearless as the tiger. Step out of your comfort zone and do the unexpected things in 2022!

Barry Ebrima

-the School of Education, from Gambia-

This is my sixth Chinese new year in China. I am in Wuhan now with my friends. During the Spring Festival, we usually go out to have some delicious food and visit beautiful places. Or we just stay at home to cook my country's food. In my country, we celebrate Eidal-Adha on the 10th day of the 12th month of the Islamic calenda, which is similar to Chinese Spring Festival in some cases. People go back home to celebrate it with their families. Here, I wish all my friends and teachers a happy and prosperous new year. And I hope this year will bring new blessings and opportunities to us.

The Lantern Festival is here once again, and it is time again to bring in happiness. We wish the merriest of the Lantern Festival to you and your loved ones, and we wish you happiness and prosperity in the days ahead!

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Editor: Sirry(trainee), Mia(trainee), Scarlett(trainee), Jared(trainee)

Reviser: Hannah

Interviewer: Mia(trainee), Scarlett(trainee), Sirry(trainee)

Photo: China Daily, Interviewee, Chen Xichang