Lantern Festival

Festival date

Lantern Festival, or Yuanxiao Jie (元宵节), falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. It closes the traditional fifteen-day Chinese New Year season with evening lights, shared food and public gatherings. In Singapore and Malaysia, the Hokkien name Chap Goh Meh, “fifteenth night,” is also familiar.

The date falls in the first lunar month’s full-moon season. The calendar assigns the festival to day fifteen rather than to the exact astronomical instant of full moon. Lantern displays may run for several evenings around that date.

Rice balls, lanterns and public celebration

The evening’s familiar pleasures include looking at illuminated displays, solving lantern riddles and eating glutinous rice balls. Lantern riddles turn a display into a shared word game: written clues invite visitors to find answers, often through wordplay or the parts of a Chinese character. Going out to see the lights can be as important as making or carrying a lantern.

Tangyuan and yuanxiao are closely related rice-ball foods with different customary methods of preparation. Tangyuan are shaped from a dough of glutinous rice flour and water, which can be wrapped around a filling. Yuanxiao are commonly made by repeatedly moistening a firm filling and rolling it in dry glutinous rice flour until a coating builds up. Sesame, peanut and bean pastes are familiar sweet fillings. Names and recipes vary locally, and not every rice ball is filled or sweet. Their round shape and the act of eating together are associated with reunion.

Lanterns range from small hand-carried objects to large installations. Paper or fabric stretched over a frame can take the form of an animal, flower or scene from a story. In a traditional revolving lantern, heat rising from a candle turns an inner mechanism, making figures move. Light, colour and motion all contribute to the spectacle.

Lantern markets combine craftsmanship, entertainment and trade. Stalls sell lights, food and other seasonal goods, while performers and crowds occupy the surrounding streets. This gives the festival a different rhythm from the more domestic gathering on New Year’s Eve.

Historical development and origin stories

Several traditions explain the festival’s beginnings. One connects lantern lighting with the Han emperor Ming and Buddhist devotion. Another associates the date with an imperial celebration after political upheaval. These are different explanations of an accumulated festival tradition, rather than a securely established founding event.

By the Northern Song period, lantern celebration had become a major urban spectacle. Meng Yuanlao’s Dongjing Menghua Lu describes the capital, present-day Kaifeng, with an elaborate lantern display near the palace, crowded streets, entertainers and illuminated shops. Buddhist and Daoist sites formed part of the festive circuit, and celebrations extended beyond one night.