Customers buy tangyuan, glutinous rice balls, for the Lantern Festival at Wangjiasha Restaurant on Feb.28. (Wang Rongjiang/SHINE)
The length of the festival varied in different dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, the lanterns were displayed for three days and the emperors lifted the curfew so people could enjoy the good times, while in the Song Dynasty, the festival was celebrated for five days. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) hosted the longest celebrations — people would light their lanterns on the eighth day of the first lunar month and take them down on the 17th.
In today’s fast-paced urban lifestyle, for many people the Lantern Festival celebrations have been reduced to having a bowl of glutinous rice balls, especially in Shanghai where streets aren’t decorated with lanterns and not everyone have the chance to visit lantern shows in the city’s parks.
The holiday staple appeared in the folk culture of the Song Dynasty as a novel food, and it was first named fuyuanzi because the glutinous rice balls float up and down in boiling water. Businessmen would also call the glutinous rice balls yuanbao, which means a shoe-shaped gold ingot.
The glutinous rice balls are made and named differently across China.
In the north, they are known as yuanxiao and the craftsmanship of making them is more complicated. The first step is mixing a filling with ground black sesame, peanuts, red bean paste or jujube paste with sugar and oil, then making smaller balls to be chilled in the fridge so the texture hardens. The fillings are dipped in water and then rolled around in glutinous rice flour in a big bamboo basket until the balls are coated evenly, then dipped in water again and rolled in the flour, a step repeated five to six times before the yuanxiao is ready to be boiled and served.
In the south, the dish is called tangyuan and it’s made in a similar way as dumplings, by putting the fillings in wrappers made of glutinous rice flour and water, then rolled around to form the ball.
The fillings can be sweet or savory, with the sweet versions usually made of black sesame, osmanthus flowers or peanuts and the savory balls made of pork and vegetables.
The freshly rolled yuanxiao takes longer time to cook and the filling is usually harder in texture. Its layer of glutinous rice flour is looser, while tangyuan is smoother and chewier.
There are also creative tangyuan dishes that change the traditional ingredients and recipes. A popular product today is crystal tangyuan, which replaces the glutinous rice flour with tapioca flour or lotus root starch, so the rice balls become transparent when cooked in boiling water. The crystal tangyuan also have creative fillings including purple sweet potato, fruit, matcha, chocolate and more.
Some people would also make tangyuan in different shapes, like the adorable kitty’s paw, bear and piggy.
Lantern fairs in Shanghai
In Shanghai, there are lantern shows and events to celebrate the festival. In addition to activities hosted in communities, you can check out these two large-scale celebrations:
The 2018 Yu Garden lantern show until March 5 features nearly 1,000 lanterns in four themes, decorating the top tourist destination with both traditional and creative lantern designs. The lanterns are lit up every night from 5:30pm.
Address: 137 Anren St.
Nanxiang Old Street is hosting Spring Festival and Lantern Festival celebrations until March 11 that include lantern shows, puzzle games, a Chinese paper-cutting exhibition and various performances.
Address: 206 Jiefang St., Nanxiang Town, Jiading District
