I am a Chinese.Chinese is multicultural country,it has many conventional consuetudes.The local festivals are the important part of our culture such as Chinese New Year,Mid-autumn Festival and Lantern Festival,etc.
Other than Chinese New Year,Lantern Festival is also a big event in China.It’s on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month.On that day we all stay with family and eat Tangyuan for dinner.Because Tangyuan has similar pronounce as reunion in Chinese,so it is a symbol of all the family members reunion,concord and blessedness.Tangyuan also called Yuan Xiao is glutinous rice ball.It is made by glutinous rice flour and the filling can be either sweet or savory.It is really delicious.You can either buy from supermarket or make it by your own.
Just like Chinese New Year,Lantern Festival also has its own tales.Here is the one I most like,it is about lantern.
Long,long age,there are many ferocious animals; they came out to hurt people,so people made a term to hunt them.God have one beautiful bird,she likes to fly everywhere,once she lost her way and hunted by one hunter.The God in heaven was really angry,he decided to destroy the village and kill all the villagers with a storm of fire in the 15th lunar day.The God’s daughter heard that and she went to the village and warned people about this.Everyone all worried about this,but no one has any idea for the fact.Luckily,one wise,old man come and made the suggestion that every house should hang red lanterns around the house,setup campfire on the street,explode the bamboo firecracker,made fireworks on 14th,15th and 16th lunar days.In this way,the god might think all village people die under fire and all the villagers can save their lives and properties.That idea was successful.The God thought all people died,so he decided not to burn down the village.From that day on,people celebrated the anniversary on 15th lunar day every year by carrying red lanterns on the streets and explode the firecracker and fireworks.
In my childhood,when we have Lantern Festival,after we had the Yuan Xiao as our dinner,my family and I will go out to view the iridescent lanterns.Sometimes,we will make our own lantern and take it out.Children take their lanterns run to everywhere.The whole village is filled with jollification and bright lanterns.These lanterns make the village as light as the daytime.Some lanterns are having riddles on it.Many adults like to guess these riddles,to show other people their talent.
There is one special type of Lantern¬—― Flying Lantern.Flying Lanterns,also known as Sky Lanterns or Kongming Lanterns.It is used in ancient,by a man called Kongming.Kongming was trapped by his enemy troops,so he invented this big,paper lantern and wrote the message for help on the lantern.The lantern flew to his battalion and Kongming get rescued.After the war,people write their wishes on the Flying Lanterns,hope the lanterns will fly to the Heaven; the God will see their hopes and make these wishes come true.The Flying Lanterns are dangerous as well.The Flying Lanterns cannot fly in a windy day,and it should be released on the open ground.If not it won’t fly up and may cause the fire.When you released the Flying Lanterns,you need two or three people to do this together,strongly suggest you to have an adult beside to help you.Because of the flame inside the lanterns,they can cause a fire when landing on flammable ground.But if you tie the stings on the bottom of the lanterns,that will be good for you to control the height and area of the flying.You can also re-use the lanterns next time.
I have heard about the Lantern Festival is like Valentine's Day in ancient.It produces a chance for for young people to meet,because in ancient young didn’t allowed to go out,expect for festivals,they can go out together to play.So the Lantern Festival is a good opportunity for single men and women to search their desirable one.
I enjoy celebrating Lantern Festival with my family.