The Chinese traditional Lantern Festival, Yuanxiao Festival in Chinese, which is on 15th day of the Chinese Lunar Calendar and falls on Mar. 1 this year, is actually not just about getting together with family but also means a date that all people should cheer up and celebrate. It is an ancient Chinese carnival.
The festival is usually considered as the last peak of Spring Festival because people will start their life in the new year officially after the day. People of the whole country will cheer up to celebrate it and also they will pray that Heaven will offer them seasonable weather for a healthy harvest in the new year. Therefore, the custom of joining for celebrations at Yuanxiao Festival is widely spread among ordinary people.
Every year, when the day comes, people will go out of their own houses to the streets to look at various lanterns, guess lantern riddles and watch performances of Dragon Dances, Lion Dances, stilt-walking, fireworks show and so on. Some of those traditional custom and activities are national intangible cultural heritages now.
Actually, the Lantern Festival is not a single festival, and it only could be understood in the context of the Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival eve is usually a night that people stay at home to wait for new coming of the new year. From then until the end of Lantern Festival, it is actually a whole process of people expanding their spaces of activities as well as interpersonal relationships.
During days from Jan.1 to Jan. 4 on the Chinese Lunar Calendar, people usually gather around family members, relatives and then to friends. From Jan, 5, which is called "Break Five," the whole of society begins to return to normal. For example, people return to farmland for work and stores open again for business. On the day of Jan. 15, the Lantern Festival, all people should join in the celebrations, and the day is considered as a day that all people confirm their mutual relationships.
The day is a carnival for the whole of society. Even old women who were usually not allowed to go outside can dress themselves up and join people in the streets. Some youth would also take the day as a precious opportunity for seeing ones they love.
Apart from public entertainment, the main activities people do in the day are paying tribute to various Chinese gods hoping they could have a good year.
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