The Lantern Festival

The Chinese Lantern Festival, or yuánxiāo jié (元宵节) falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month. It comes two weeks after Chinese New Year’s Day, which is the first day of the 15-day Spring Festival celebration period.

Since the Chinese New Year is on February 10, 2024, the Lantern Festival is coming up! It’s time to celebrate it on Sunday, February 24th, 2024. It marks the first full moon of the new year and the end of the Spring Festival.

The Lantern Festival is not actually a Chinese public holiday, so the official public calendar does not allow for the day off. However, it is considered part of the Chinese Spring Festival.

Those who are fortunate enough to do so take 2 to 3 weeks off so that they can spend the entire Spring Festival, including Yuanxiao Jie, with family, and also have time to travel back and forth between cities and their home villages.

It is an evening to celebrate by gathering with family to eat glutinous rice balls, known as yuánxiāo (元宵) or tāngyuán (汤圆), and enjoy night views of colorful and brightly lit lanterns.

Chinese celebrate the Lantern Festival by…you guessed it—lighting and enjoying lanterns. In China, temple fairs are a great place to see lantern displays. Watching lion and dragon dances is another Lantern Festival activity.

Fireworks seem to come alive again on the day of the Lantern Festival, maybe because of parades, or perhaps because it’s the final day of official Chinese New Year celebrations, and people take the opportunity to light up any firecrackers or fireworks they have left!

Perhaps the most common and most significant traditions, however, are related to food.

Eating yuánxiāo (元宵), also known as tāngyuán (汤圆), is an important Lantern Festival custom.  

They are round glutinous rice dumplings with sweet black sesame or peanut pastes as filling. Other possible fillings include chocolate, red beans, fruits, lotus paste, and even custard. There are also savory versions.

Glutinous rice is another term for sticky rice, so these dumplings are sticky and chewy in texture. The fillings may be solid, or soft and liquidy.

The round shape of the rice balls symbolizes wholeness and togetherness. Like other symbolic Chinese New Year foods, tang yuan is symbolic due to the fact the word is a homonym for another positive Chinese word or expression. It sounds like tuányuán (团圆) which means ‘reunion’ and ‘completeness.’

We usually enjoy them on the evening of the Lantern Festival for dessert, and occasionally throughout the Spring Festival period!