Why is the Lantern Festival not listed as a legal holiday?

Lantern Festival is not a national holiday. National holidays include New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Labor Day, National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. Lantern Festival has a long history and culture, which can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. Traditionally, the Lantern Festival is the first full moon night in January of the first year, second only to the Spring Festival.

Why is the Lantern Festival not listed as a legal holiday?

In June 2008, the Lantern Festival was selected as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage. However, since it is not a national statutory festival, most people don't even know the origin of the Lantern Festival, let alone inherit the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. Therefore, some NPC representatives have repeatedly suggested that the Lantern Festival be included in the national legal holiday.

According to relevant sources, considering that the total number of national legal holidays should not be increased at present, and the Lantern Festival is near the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival will not be added as a legal holiday for the time being. Of course, whether the Lantern Festival is finally determined as a national statutory holiday still needs to be studied and decided by relevant departments. After all, it is not a trivial matter to make a holiday, and it cannot be decided for a while. All aspects should be considered.

The custom of the lantern festival

Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China, Chinese character cultural circle and overseas Chinese. Lantern Festival mainly includes a series of traditional folk activities, such as watching lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, solve riddles on the lanterns and setting off fireworks. In addition, traditional folk performances such as Youlong lanterns, lion dancing, walking on stilts, boating, yangko and playing Taiping drums have been added to the Lantern Festival in many places. Lantern Festival mainly includes a series of traditional folk activities, such as watching lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, solve riddles on the lanterns and setting off fireworks. The formation of the Lantern Festival has a long process, which is rooted in the folk custom of turning on the lights to pray. People will cook porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month. Because mice often eat silkworms in large areas at night, it is said that they can stop eating silkworms by feeding them rice porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month. So, these families cooked a big pot of sticky porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month, and some even covered it with a layer of meat. They put porridge in bowls, on ceilings, corners and mouths where mice haunt.