What is the festival tradition of watching lanterns?

Watching lanterns is a tradition of the Lantern Festival.

Lantern Festival is the first full moon night at the beginning of the lunar calendar. In the old society, there were customs of "watching lanterns", "enjoying the moon" and "setting off fireworks", especially the Lantern Festival. During the reign of Emperor Wendi, the Lantern Festival was celebrated throughout the country. For a time, all kinds of strange colored lights filled the streets and lanes, and colorful colors set off the sky.

In the Song Dynasty, more attention was paid to the Lantern Festival, and lantern viewing activities became more lively. The lantern viewing activity lasted for five days, and the styles of lanterns were more abundant. In the Ming Dynasty, the Lantern Festival will last 10 days, which is the longest Lantern Festival in China. Although there were only three days to enjoy the lanterns in the Qing Dynasty, the scale of the lantern viewing activities was unprecedented. Besides burning lanterns, fireworks are also set off for entertainment.

Look at the origin of lanterns:

Lantern Festival originated from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who set up an altar in the palace on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to worship the most distinguished Taiyi God at that time. Because it is held all night, it is necessary to light all night, which is the beginning of Lantern Festival lighting. After Buddhism was introduced into China from India, Taoist immortal art combined with the piety of burning lamps to worship Buddha.

On the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, urban and rural areas are brightly lit, and all gentry and ordinary people hang up lights, forming a unique custom of combining Chinese and western.