Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival is a China's traditional festival, which is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar year. Hence The 15th day is the first night to see a full moon; therefore,  the day is also called Yuan Xiao Festival in China.According to Chinese tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate

photo taken by Li, Chao (My roommate) 

Iantern Festival is also one of the biggest holidays in China. Several days before Lantern Festival, people begin to make lanterns which are made in the shape of different animals, vegetables, fruits and many, other things. 


While making lanterns people usually write riddles on lanterns. On the evening of Lantern Festival, all the lanterns are hung up in order to pray for the luck of the year. 

Photo taken by Li, Chao

The most interesting part is making " Yuan xiao". The shape of yuan xiao is round as snowball so that it has another name as " small round dumpling balls", and when you bite into it, the dumpling gives way in a soft but chewy manner.  In Chinese families, yuan xiao means "happiness and fullness" because all the families could finally gather together eating yuan xiao without worrying their stressful and overloaded job or thinking about other disturbing things. In contrast, they could chill and drink with their family members that they were too busy to visit anymore. 


In my memory, eating "Yuan xiao " was my favorite part of Iantern Festival. Not only does it have the sweet taste, but also it made me fell so warm that could be full around with my beloved ones, hearing their laughs, and sharing their happiness. In Chinese culture, we only ate 6 "yuan xiao " at 12 am on the Lantern Festival because it made by a glutinous rice flour which is hard to digest.  Secondly, "6" represents " a good luck " in Chinese culture; therefore, if you eat "6 Yuan xiao", you will have best wishes and good luck for the rest of the year.

I was the youngest one in my whole family so that my grandfather loved me the most.  When everyone closed their eyes to pray for the best luck for our family on the festival dinner, my grandfather always gave me one extra "Yuan xiao" from his bowl secretly, and he had been doing this until I came to Canada.

At the beginning, I thought maybe he was too old to have too much sweet food so he needed to share one with me.
Recently, my grandma told me because your grandfather thought you were so weak ( because I was born prematurely) that he was scared that we would not be able to  rise you up healthy. Therefore, he always tried to give his " luck " to you, and hoped you could live in a healthy and happy life after you "eat " it.

My grandfather kept this secret for more than 20 years, and I was so selfish that took his "luck " away. Somehow, I think back right now, if I did not take his "luck" away, he would live longer? or whether I would suffer more pain and illness in my life instead of letting him go through everything for me?