lantern festival in wuhan

one of the important chinese traditional festival during the spring time is the latern festival ,which is in the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar calendar, the celebration of lantern festival also signify the end of the lunar new year celebration, which usually lasts one month in chinese rural area.

this tradition is more or less the same across the whole country. usually at the night people will go out to see some performance or beautiful lanterns on the street, and some intellectuals will write some literal puzzles on the lantern, for the people to solve. and in chinese literature, it is also the day for young man to date. dating under the full moon and the colourful lanterns is really romantic.

that is something which were common in the ancient time, but as the days goes by, the chinese people are losing the tradition. but something still passed down from generation to generation. the most well known activity is eating the Tang yuan”, a round shape refection made from sticky rice and enwraps some sweety stuffing inside, such as sugar, sweeten bean. you can see the picture here.

besides eating the delicious foods, the people usually have other interesting actvities to do. and so far as i know in wuhan, the people can enjoy the yuanxiao performance, which include the dragon lantern performance, and the lion dance.

usually in my hometown, at the night of lantern festival ,  there will be this kinds of performance in every household. the performers will go to every family to perform, which will bring bless and luck to the family under chinese people’s thinking. i have watched this kinds of performance for more than twenty years, when i was a kid, i feel excited when the lantern festival is coming, and i really want to join the performance, but actually it has high physical requirement on the performer, and i can not hold on for a long time. and after i grow up, it is not fresh to me at all, i always think about to bring some change to this activities, which may attract more visitors to my hometown.