Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival 元宵节 (Yuánxiāo jié) falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the first full moon of the year. It closes the Spring Festival: the new moon opened Chinese New Year, this full moon ends it. Families go out after dark, hang or carry lanterns, and eat yuanxiao or tangyuan — glutinous rice balls, often filled with black sesame or peanut, served in a sweet soup. North and south do not use the same name for the same dumpling; the filling and the wrapping method differ too.

Lanterns are the public face of the night. They are painted, written on, carried on sticks, or strung in rows across a street. A common game is to guess a riddle written on the lantern: the prize is small, the point is to stop and read. Dragon and lion dances, left over from the New Year, still go out on this evening in many towns.

The date is lunar, so it moves in the Gregorian calendar, always in February or early March, fifteen days after Chinese New Year. The hub of festivals lists both years.