Lantern Festival

Its well known that the Chinese have two  calendars they go by. One is the same as the rest of the world such as the Gregorian calendar (also known as the Solar calendar). The other calendar they go by is the Lunar calendar which starts from the has roughly between 12 to 13 months since it goes according to each moon cycle every month.

So what does the Lantern Festival have to do with the Lunar calendar? Well, the Lantern Festival comes at the end of the Spring Festival (Solar Calendar) or the Chinese New year (Lunar Calendar). The represents the end of the New Year festivities as well as a Chinese version of Valentines Day.

Back in the days of ancient China, single and available young people would be out in the street visiting the local matchmaker hoping to get matched since red lanterns signify Good luck and Hope. Of course, overtime China modernized and like in the U.S., businesses marketed Lantern Festival as a form of Valentines Day.

This year, Lantern Festival landed on March 2nd.

Now, you may be wondering how the Lantern Festival came to be.

It's said that the most beautiful crane from the heavens landed on Earth and was shot and killed by villagers. Not sure why but they did, and the Jade Emperor of the Heaven (who is the Grandfather of all Gods) became angry that they puny humans had killed his favorite crane.

He called on his army and planned to destroy the village on the 15th lunar day (because you know if you plan on destroying an village you have to strategize and stuff). The Jade Emperor's daughter saw what her Heavenly Father had planned for the village sent down to Earth a messenger, warned the villagers of their imminent and planned doom.

The villagers got together and planned a way to prevent their village demolition by hanging lit red lanterns all over the village as well as creating several large bond fires in the streets and exploding firecrackers (did you know the Chinese invented gunpowder?) for three days straight!

Of course, when the Jade Emperor's army rode down from skies ready for some demolition derby, they saw the village and it appeared like the village was on fire by the brightly lit lanterns and fires and stuff. The army turned back around (completely disappointed I'm sure) and reported to the Jade Emperor that the village was already on fire.

The Jade Emperor was satisfied, thinking that the village was burning down on its own (not very smart is he?). The village was saved. So every year, after that the villagers and people for far and wide (in China) continued to set the town on "fire."

This is one of the stories I was told and a little search on Wikipedia told me that there are several other myths of how the Lantern Festival came to be but this is by far my favorite version.

My entire neighborhood was lighting up fireworks and children ran around with sparklers. It was the only day police turned their heads away from the amount of fireworks being sold in lieu of the festivities.

There was also food!

Lots of street vendors lined up in streets where public lanterns are hung. Candied crab apples, almond and sesame, Chinese donuts, candies, meat pancakes, fried pao xia, stinky tofu, mai gu tou, and so much more!
I spend the day with my friend's family which has been my Chinese family too since I have been here in China. I was picked up by my friend and her fiancé from my apartment and we made our way to (my Chinese) Father's garage where we ate traditional meal called shan fen hi.
Its considered good luck.

This is a very thick soup, almost like a conglee and has ingredients like peanuts, pork, celery, rice, and Chinese mushrooms. So many ingredients go into this meal that its all you eat. It makes you full!
There are several of other ingredients that I myself could not identify, and figured it was alright NOT to know.

After a deliciously hot and thick meal, we loaded up in three cars (Chinese mom and dad had a few relatives coming with us). Parking of course was tedious and after finally finding parking, we walked along a river in Huangyue province. The streets are lit up with lanterns hanging from trees and thousands of lights decorating the streets and trees. We had missed the floating lanterns but there were still several hundreds of people milling around.

Walking around in these brightly colored streets and along the river was a spectacular sight. People from all ages were milling around, blowing blubbles, just enjoying themselves in underneath blooming trees and lanters. Perhaps, one day you too can come an see the Lantern Festival for yourself.

As always,
Zai Jian!