What is the meaning of Lantern Festival?

Yuanxiao has two meanings, one is a traditional Chinese festival, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar; the other is the name of a food.

The first month of the lunar calendar is the first month of the year, and the ancient people called the night "night", so they called the 15th day of the first month of the year the Lantern Festival. The 15th day of the first month is the first full moon of the year, but also the beginning of the year, the night of the earth back to spring, people celebrate this, but also to celebrate the continuation of the New Year. The Lantern Festival is also known as the "Festival of the New Year".

According to Chinese folk tradition, on this day the moon is high in the night, people have to point up ten thousand colored lanterns, to show the celebration. Go out and enjoy the moon, light up the lanterns and set off the fireworks, guess the lantern riddles, *** eat the Lantern Festival, family reunion, celebrating the festival together, a happy and harmonious.

Methods of Lantern Festival production also vary from north to south. The north of the Lanterns more with a bucket roll hand shaking method, the south of the dumplings are more with the heart of the hand kneading dough. The Lanterns can be as big as walnuts and as small as soybeans, and are cooked in soup, fried, boiled in oil, and steamed.

Expanded:

The Lantern Festival is also known as the Festival of Lights, and the custom of burning lanterns at the Lantern Festival began in the Han Dynasty, and during the Tang Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was even more prosperous, with lanterns hanging in the palace and on the streets, and the establishment of tall lantern wheels, lanterns, and lantern trees.

The Song Dynasty attached more importance to the Lantern Festival, more lively lantern-appreciation activities, lantern-appreciation activities to be carried out for five days, the style of the lamp is also more abundant. The Ming Dynasty was the longest Lantern Festival in China with 10 days of continuous Lantern Appreciation. Qing Dynasty lantern appreciation activities, although only 3 days, but the lantern appreciation activities on a large scale, unprecedented, in addition to burning lights, but also fireworks to help.

The folk custom of eating Lantern Festival. Lantern made of glutinous rice, at first, people called this food "floating round son", and later called "soup dumplings" or "Tangyuan", these names "reunion", "the word sounds similar," and "reunion".

With the passage of time, the Lantern Festival activities are more and more, many local festivals added to the dragon lanterns, lions, stilt walkers, rowing the dry boat twisting rice-planting songs, playing drums and other traditional folk performances. The festival, which has been passed down for more than 2,000 years, is not only prevalent on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but is also celebrated year after year in overseas Chinese settlements.

China.com - Lantern Festival Food Customs