Thursday, 21. February 2008, 18:45:38
On the 15th day of the first lunar month, the first full moon after the Spring Festival is the occasion called the Lantern Festival. It is customary to eat special sweet dumplings called yuanxiao and enjoy displayed lanterns.
The custom of enjoying lanterns at this time of the year dates back to the first century, and has continued to be popular through China up to the present.
The festival originated when Buddhism was first introduced to China during the reign of Emperor Mingdi of the Eastern Han Dynasty. However, it did not exert a great influence on the Chinese people. One day, Emperor Mingdi had a dream about a gold man in his palace. At the very moment when he was about to ask the mysterious figure who he was, the gold man suddenly rose to the sky and disappeared to the west. The next day, Emperor Mingdi sent a scholar to India on a pilgrimage to locate Buddhist scriptures. After journeying thousands of miles, the scholar finally returned with the scriptures. Emperor Mingdi ordered that a temple be built to house a statue of Buddha and serve as a repository for the scriptures. Followers believed that the power of Buddha could dispel darkness.
Therefore, Emperor Mingdi ordered his subjects to display lighted lanterns during what was to become the Lantern Festival. Today, the displaying of lanterns remains a big event. People enjoy the brightly lit lanterns a night. Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, for example, holds a lantern fair each year in the Cultural Park. During the Lantern Festival, the park is literally an ocean of lanterns!
Many new designs attract countless visitors. The most eye-catching lantern is the Dragon Pole; this is a lantern in the shape of a golden dragon, spiraling up a 27-meter-high pole, spewing fireworks from its mouth. It is quite an impressive sight.
On this festive night many cities hold lantern fairs to display exotic, weirdly shaped multi-colored lanterns.
In addition to enjoying entertainment and the beautiful lanterns, it is also important to eat Yuanxiao. Yuanxiao or Tangyuan, are round balls made of glutinous rice flour stuffed with sugar fillings, which are eaten to symbolize the reunion. The dish is named after the festival itself. It is said that the custom of eating Yuanxiao originated during the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the fourth century, and then became popular during the Tang and Song dynasties.
The fillings inside the dumplings or Yuanxiao are either sweet or salty. Sweet fillings are made of sugar, Walnuts, sesame, osmanthus flowers, rose petals, sweetened tangerine peel, bean paste, or jujube paste. A single ingredient or any combination can be used as the filling. The salty variety can be filled with minced meat and vegetables, or a mixture of the two.
The way to make Yuanxiao also varies between northern and southern China. The usual method followed in southern provinces is to shape the dough of rice flour into balls, make a hole, insert the filling, and then close the hole. Then, smooth out the dumpling by rolling it between your hands. In North China, sweet or non-meat stuffing is the usual ingredient. The fillings are pressed into hardened cores, dipped lightly in water and rolled in a flat basket containing dry glutinous rice flour. A layer of the flour sticks to the filling, which is then again dipped in water and rolled a second time in the rice flour. This continues on and on, similar to rolling a snowball, until the dumpling is the desired size.
The custom of eating Yuanxiao dumplings still remains today. This tradition encourages both old and new stores to promote their Yuanxiao products. They all try their best to improve the taste and quality of the dumplings to attract more customers.
In rural areas the local people gather together to enjoy themselves while spectators and participants set off fireworks. They also walk on stilts, perform with dragon lanterns, play on swings, dance the yangge and other folk dances.





Cred: CRIOnline