A lantern show of monkey figures goes on during a celebration for the traditional Lantern Festival in Hong Kong, south China, Feb.22, 2016.(Photo: Xinhua/Li Peng)
With great verve and passion, Chinese people around the world have celebrated their Lantern Festival in both traditional and trendy ways.
The festival, which fell on Feb. 22 this year, brought an end to this year's Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. It is the day when people see themselves starting a new life in a new year.
In China, Lantern Festival is an important family day, but unlike Spring Festival when people stay home for family dinners, it is a day for going out and about.
TRADITIONAL WAYS OF CELEBRATIONS
In southwest China's Sichuan Province, 20 dragon dance troupes gathered in Luxian County. A team of dancers under a long dragon "costume" painted red or gold used poles to manipulate the dragon's head and serpentine "body." They danced to the accompaniment of drums, twisting the dragon as it "danced," shaking its head and swinging its tail through the crowds.
Another folk dance, "Yangge," was performed on Monday morning in Yan'an city, the "red cradle" of the Chinese revolution in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Staging the dance on Lantern Festival has become a tradition in the city. This year, about 3,000 performers in bright costumes with colorful umbrellas, fans and red ribbons danced to local folk music and drums.
INNOVATED WAYS OF CELEBRATIONS
The Lantern Festival dates back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD). Lanterns are almost always red, the color of good fortune in China. But today people are using new techniques to decorate their lanterns, adding fashionable new elements to an old tradition.
In Taiwan, the annual lantern exhibition has as its centerpiece a 26-meter figure of the Monkey King, the leading character in the Chinese classic "Journey to the West," to celebrate the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese zodiac.
In Shanghai, the Yu Garden Fair not only presents traditional lanterns but also the latest high-tech lighting. With a monkey theme, the lantern fair features lasers and pop music. Though these modern shows attract huge numbers of people, some are keen to preserve more traditional celebrations.
CHINESE HELMETS MISS HOME ON LANTERN FESTIVAL
To most Chinese, Lantern Festival is a moment for family reunion, not for some Chinese peacekeepers who are still active on UN missions in places far away from their home and families.
Zhang Hongjun, a Chinese peacekeeper in Lebanon, is from China's southwestern mega city of Chongqing. For him and his teammates, homesickness is inevitable.
He told Xinhua that because of their pressing time schedule, he had to keep working and could not celebrate the festival with his family back home this year.
