| Lantern Festival | |
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| Feb 22, 2005 14:10 |   |
 | Tommorrow will be the last day of Spring Festival which is also known as the Lantern Festival. In ancient China, people believed that the light of lanterns could scare and drive away evil spirits. Today, the festival is celebrated at night with children carrying lanterns in a parade. The traditional food eaten in Lantern festival is sweet dumpling (Yuan Xiao), made of glutinous rice flour with different fillings inside such as black sesame, hawthorn, nuts, etc. The dumplings are round and symbolize family unity and completeness. Anyone will celebrate the day in China? What are your plans for the last day of Spring Festival? |
| Feb 22, 2005 14:11 | #1 |
| it is Chinese valentine's day! |
| Feb 22, 2005 14:14 | #2 |
| During the past, maidens were seldom let out but on Lantern Festival they could go out to enjoy the lanterns and even to have a date. There are many Chinese poets describing this romantic day! |
| Feb 22, 2005 14:31 | #3 |
| In my hometown, it is popular for children (especially under 12 years old)to carry the lantern at the Lantern Festival Eve and drop around．The beautiful lanterns shone and lighten the night. It is also a traditional custom to see brides who got married last year at the Lantern Festival Eve. Is that interesting?? :） |
| Feb 22, 2005 14:45 | #4 |
| First of all,i have to say Chinese valentine's day happens in July in Chinese lunar calendar. And The Lantern Festival has a legend. want to hear? A long time ago,the immortals who live in welkin were irritated by the human,because human wanted to know more about themselves and the world.The immortals didn't want to be replaced by the human.They thought they were the one of the universe. Then, the head of immortals-----Emperor of Heaven Jade wanted to light a big fire to kill all the human.After that,they can rebuild a new world that was full of human who were the slaves of the immortals. But Emperor of Heaven Jade 's evil idea was heard by a Fairy maiden.She didn't want to see the terrible status.So she came to the human world to tell the people that the Emperor of Heaven Jade planed on killing them. At last, clever human thought out the idea-----at that day,all the people light the lanterns,so many flames made the immortals believe that human had been burned to death. that's all. That is the derivation of Lantern Festival. sorry, my English is retrograding.i hope u can understand it. |
| Feb 22, 2005 15:02 | #5 |
| i have to tell u there are two versions about Chinese valentine's day. the one u mentioned was from the legend of the Cowherd and Weaving Lady. However, if u read the poems by Ouyang Xiu or Xin Qiji, u will c that the Lantern Festival is also the Chinese valentine's day. |
| Feb 22, 2005 15:09 | #6 |
| I like lanterns very much when i was young. My uncle bought many beautiful lanterns for me on every lantern festival. Besides the traditional lanterns in the red color, i had different shapes of lanterns, lotus, monkeys, dogs, horses...very vivid and colorful. We could not wait to light them up when the night fell. Lifting our favourite lanterns, we children walked around the courtyard and enjoyed the fireworks at the same time... |
| Feb 22, 2005 15:15 | #7 |
| thank you , MERMAID. enlarge my repository. |
| Feb 22, 2005 15:27 | #8 |
| u r welcome frankenstein. it is common sense every Chinese should kno.hehe! yes, lantern is a warm and beautiful memory of our childhood. I love the ones with real candle instead of bulb. U got to be very careful in case the candle went out or it burned ur lantern. Every little girl with a lantern in hand became a fair lady! |
| Feb 22, 2005 15:31 | #9 |
| who can post us some photos of lantern? |
| Feb 22, 2005 15:38 | #10 |
| In Xi'an lantern show will be held on the City Wall! It would be marvelous! |
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