● Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional Chinese festivals, also known as Shang Yuan Festival, Xiao Zheng Yue, Yuan Xi or Lantern Festival, which is held on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar.

The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar, and the ancient people called "night" as "night", so the 15th day of the first month is the first full moon night of the year. According to the Taoist saying of "Sanyuan", the 15th day of the first month is also called "Shang Yuan Festival". Since ancient times, the Lantern Festival has been dominated by the festive custom of watching lanterns.

The Lantern Festival has a long history of formation and has its roots in the ancient folk custom of opening lanterns to pray for good fortune. According to general information and folklore legends, the 15th day of the first month was already valued in the Western Han Dynasty, although the 15th day of the first month Lantern Festival really became a national folk festival after the Han and Wei dynasties. The rise of the custom of lighting lanterns on the 15th day of the first month is also related to the eastern spread of Buddhism, Buddhism flourished during the Tang Dynasty, and it was common for officials and people to "burn lanterns for Buddha" on the 15th day of the first month, so Buddhist lanterns spread throughout the people, and from the Tang Dynasty onwards, the Lantern Festival became a legal matter.

The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional Chinese festivals. The festival features a series of traditional folk activities such as viewing lanterns, eating dumplings, guessing lantern riddles, and setting off fireworks. In addition, many places also add traditional folklore performances such as dragon lanterns, lion dances, stilt walking, dry boats, rice-squeezing songs and Taiping drums to the festival.