Light up the night with festival fun

The official Spring Festival holiday has come to an end, yet the festive atmosphere still lingers in the air, with fitful fireworks heard in the evenings. For holiday revelers who missed the celebrations in the city or simply don't want them to end, the upcoming Lantern Festival, which falls on Sunday this year, is another lively occasion for making new year wishes.

Celebrated on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year across the country, the Lantern Festival, or Yuanxiao Jie, is the primary important festival which marks the end of the traditional two-week celebration of the New Year. The festival is also the first night of the lunar year to see a full noon. For centuries, it has been celebrated with joyful rituals including a family outing to admire the full moon, lighting lanterns, solving lantern puzzles, watching dragon or lion dances and eating the sweet, glutinous stuffed dumplings called yuanxiao.

Joyful occasion less observed

"Spring Festival is more an occasion for family get-togethers, which is often celebrated in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere, but Lantern Festival is often marked by a more joyful atmosphere," said Tian Lili, a researcher of Chinese folk culture. "We often say nao yuanxiao, which pinpoints the joyous and reveling nature of the festival."

To mark the date, people are encouraged to cast off all social norms and constraints and engage in bold, fun celebrations. For example, Tian said, young women of the Miao ethnic group in Southwest China's Guizhou Province partake in a competition of stealing vegetables from the farms. The one who gets the most is considered the most deft.

However, with the fast pace of modern life, it is becoming more difficult for people to enjoy the day as people used to, she noted. In Tian's memory, popular celebrations also include performers walking on stilts, or dancing the traditional yangko dance or single women accompanying each other to temple fairs. However, many traditional celebrations have disappeared among urban dwellers, leaving only the custom of eating yuanxiao on the day, Tian noted with a lament.

Luckily the entertaining spirit is still present as lantern watching events are organized by either shopping malls or cultural organizations.

While the festival is not an official day off, it falls on a Sunday this year, thus giving holiday merrymakers more time and choices to enjoy the occasion. Therefore a day trip in or outside the city would be the best spice for celebration before the holiday season ends the next day.