Lantern Festival

[murmurlade]

So that topic about your zodiac animal got me thinking about Chinese traditions quite a bit.
If you haven't noticed already (since Google), today is the Lantern Festival! It marks the end of CNY and is also sort of a replacement for valentines day.

People sometimes confuse this with the mid-autumn festival (the holiday where you get to nom on mooncakes) since it's called the Lantern Festival as well.

Children usually light paper lanterns and walk around at night, but recently it's more of flashy plastic shapes than the traditional paper sort haha. I even saw one that played music once. I myself prefer the paper because sometimes kids would accidentally light the entire lantern on fire, that was fun.. and dangerous.

And other people light up the paper lanterns and release it to the skies with their wishes written on it! Got an idea of it? Think Rapunzel. That sort of stuff....

Anyway, spoons:
• Have you ever participated in the Lantern Festival, or something similar?
• What kind of lantern would you prefer?
• How much do you know about Chinese culture? Is this new information to you?

Aaaand, as a bonus, my friend sent me this site! It's in mandarin but should be fairly easy to figure out, and be careful for autoplay music!
CLICK ME

Click Play → Pick a lantern → Press the button to continue → Write wishes on your lantern → Second option to continue → Light the lantern → Guide the lantern to the skies!

OK sorry for the long post guys /rolls away

[ShiroGEM]

I've never heard about this Valentine's Day replacement of Lantern Festival to be honest. Maybe it doesn't exist in Hong Kong. o- o I've been to some small very small lantern festivals! /o/ But we had light bulbs in our paper lanterns and ours didn't float in skies. I kind of like those more because the thought of lanterns flying away makes me wonder where all the waste ends up at... Besides you can decorate your lantern you're holding however you want.

Moon cakes are still amazing though I can shove them in my mouth all day.
The site is very cute btw.

[MonkeyGirl18]

I like the idea of them being made of paper so when they catch fire, all that comes back is ash, not melted plastic. (If they catch on fire in the sky. Otherwise, paper is biodegradable and not plastic.)

Plus, that site didn't work for me. I get to a certain step and I can't do anything.

[ShiroGEM]

But lots of people release them which makes a a lot of ashes... xD

[Kitalpha Hart]

I've not seen any myself
But I've heard of it, though the date was a bit more ambiguous, AKA I never knew when it happened
Tho I saw somewhere about it being for lovers letting one fly, and how high it flew represented how well their relationship would go or sommat, which implies similar to v-day in the whole love and partners aspect

[dragoness129]

That is very strange that both festivals are called the Lantern Festivals.
I have not participated in any of this, but thought it would be pretty fun try sometime!
I loved watching it on Tangled! ^_^

[galled]

I've never heard of any of this. Thanks for sharing Mur!

We've had people send up candle lanterns around here (less than a mile away) and just as you'd think, it started a big fire. Fire tankers, helicopters, and trucks. Everything is flammable here in southern California!

[murmurlade]

Holy crap noooooo! That's awful!
Safety is supposed to be the most important thing ; H ;

MonkeyGirl18
Ah, that's too bad. At least you're not missing out on too much!

ShiroGEM
Ayyyy, I get what you think about all that waste. We used to reuse our held paper lanterns, since all we did was put a candle inside of them. Lightbulbs sound difficult lol...

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I've never seen a lantern festival in real life but I have seen documentaries.... Japan has one where they float the lanterns I believe...<got to look that up>

[murmurlade]

Ooh, do share if you find any nice videos :'D

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Mur: when I finish with my posting frenzy I definitely plan on looking it up!

[ShiroGEM]

Light bulbs were much safer when I was a child because it was crowded and candles could risk the lamp being caught on fire. Especially since I was around 5 years old at the time, I didn't really want to fall over and burn it to ash. xD

[Lemon Cheesecake]

"The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month, and traditionally ends the Chinese New Year period."

"The Lantern Festival of 2017 falls on February 11. ... And because every household eats yuanxiao (a rice ball stuffed with different fillings) on that day, it is called Yuan Xiao Festival."

Let's plan to eat rice balls and make some lanterns!

[TheBeeWitch]

I'm half Thai and my dad and I use to light paper lanterns as good luck on New Years.
I guess there sort of a wish thing where you watch your wish float up to the sky at night~


I don't know much about Chinese tradition though. ^.^

[galled]

That sounds and looks like fun (and the gesture is lovely). But here in California everything is so dry typically--it's so dangerous! Someone tried it near where I live and two hillsides burned fire before the air tankers put it out!

Some people... Not so smart...