Today is 元宵节 (yuán xiāo jié) or the Lantern Festival marking the 15th day of the lunar-solar year and the last day of 春节 (chūn jié), the Spring Festival, which starts on Chinese New Year's Day. It is also the first full moon of the year which is what 元宵 (yuán xiāo) means.
Traditional activities are centred around the lanterns hung all over cities, towns, villages and hamlets throughout China. People hang them, but also spend time viewing them. In recent years, I’ve given up viewing them, 90% are just advertisements from local and national companies. The marketeers screw everything up.
Yuan xiao
Also traditional is eating a delicacy with the same name 元宵 (yuán xiāo). These are small dumpling balls of glutinous rice (representing the new moon) filled with various, mainly sweet ingredients such as sugar, rose petals, sesame, sweetened bean paste, and jujube paste. Black sesame paste is the favourite. These are very similar to 汤圆 (tāng yuán), also eaten at the Lantern Festival. It is a kind of a north v south China thing, with yuanxiao being favoured more in the north and tangyuan more in the south.
The main difference is in the technique of assembling the dish. More information on the difference here. Both are too sweet and sticky for me, I’m afraid. There is a recipe here.
Although, eating yuanxiao is pretty much universal, different parts of China have their own traditions. Xi’an people, for example, eat 糖葫芦 (táng hú lu), candied haw berries on sticks.
Me, I celebrate everyone going back to work after two weeks. Shops re-open. Delivery services resume. Prices go back down (the few delivery services that continue working hoist their prices to the meet the new moon.
元宵快乐！
