CNN
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As this yr’s Lunar New 12 months celebrations draw to a detailed, it’s time to prepare for the grand finale, a.okay.a. the Lantern Pageant.
Taking place on the fifteenth day of the primary lunar month (February 5 this yr), the occasion, known as Yuan Xiao Jie in Mandarin Chinese language, is taken into account the right ending to the weeks-long Lunar New 12 months preparations and celebrations.
The Lantern Pageant celebrates the primary full moon of the yr – therefore the title (Yuan means the start. Xiao means evening).
It marks the departure of winter and the start of the spring season. It usually falls very shut to 2 of the 24 conventional Chinese language Photo voltaic Phrases – an integral a part of the Chinese language calendar – “Spring Commences” and “Spring Showers.”
On at the present time, folks gentle lanterns to represent driving out darkness and bringing hope to the approaching yr.
It’s mentioned that the custom gained reputation throughout China’s Han Dynasty some 2,000 years in the past.
Revelers would attend a neighborhood truthful to admire fireworks, watch performances, view lanterns and clear up riddles written on hooked up notes.
Lantern riddles have advanced over time. Right here’s a easy one:
Once you draw it, it’s spherical.
Once you write it, it’s rectangular.
It’s quick in winter.
It’s lengthy in summer season.
The reply is solar – 日 in Chinese language.
Again within the day, the Lantern Pageant was one of many uncommon occasions of the yr when single ladies and boys could be allowed to fulfill one another, everybody gathering beneath rows of lanterns. That’s why some have even dubbed it Chinese language Valentine’s Day.
The romantic competition has been properly documented in historic literature, together with “Journey to the West” and “Dream of the Purple Chamber,” and has since impressed numerous well-known poems.
Immediately, the Lantern Pageant is noticed in communities worldwide and celebrations range considerably. Many cities placed on grand lantern exhibitions and parades to mark the competition.
Putian in China’s Fujian province claims to have the longest Lantern Pageant celebration within the nation, with some saying it’s thought-about extra essential than the precise Lunar New 12 months competition.
Festivities final practically three weeks and embody a deity parade, hearth pit leaping and loads of conventional theater and music performances.
In Hebei’s Nuanquan city, residents placed on a spectacular “firework” present by throwing molten iron towards a chilly stone metropolis wall to create sparks.
The centuries-old customized, dashuhua or da tie hua (translated as hit tree flower or hit iron flower) has been acknowledged as intangible cultural heritage by the Chinese language authorities. It was additionally one of many key performances on the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony in 2022.
Made well-known within the city of Nuanquan, da tie hua exhibits are standard somewhere else throughout China, together with the Nice Wall in Beijing’s Yanqing District, through the Lantern Pageant.
However Taiwan is the place you’ll discover probably the most excessive Lantern Pageant occasion of all of them – the Beehives Fireworks Pageant.
Held yearly within the metropolis of Yanshui, hundreds of daredevils in helmets and fire-retardant clothes carry a collection of launch towers filled with small rocket fireworks that resemble beehives into the slender streets.
As soon as lit, the towers shoot a whole lot and hundreds of rockets in several instructions, leading to a dramatic and sometimes terrifying scene.
Irrespective of how massive, small or harmful your Lantern Pageant social gathering is, you may by no means go incorrect with a bowl of spherical and candy glutinous rice balls, known as tangyuan, as you admire the total moon.
The spherical motifs symbolize the reunion and wholeness of households.
Different distinctive celebrations could be discovered all through Asia to mark the primary full moon of the lunar yr.
In Malaysia, the emphasis is on the match-making custom of the Lantern Pageant. Single ladies usually toss tangerines right into a river, lake or sea to wish for marriage.
Girls write their contact information on the tangerines earlier than tossing them into the river. Males then fish the tangerines out of the water, hoping to fulfill their future companions.
In South Korea, it’s known as Daeboreum (the Nice Full Moon). Many Koreans down a shot of chilled rice wine and eat several types of nuts, grains and dried greens. Along with lighting lanterns, some additionally take a hike and make a bonfire.
