Lantern Festival

The story behind the day

The Lantern Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and closes the Chinese New Year season. It is called Yuanxiao or Dengjie, the lantern festival, and Shangyuan in Daoist usage. Streets and houses are hung with lanterns, people solve riddles written on them, and families eat round sweet rice dumplings that stand for the full moon and the unbroken family circle. Daoists keep the day as one of the festivals of the Three Officials, and Koreans keep the same first full moon as Daeboreum.^[1–8]

Origins

Where the festival came from is uncertain. A Smithsonian writer places its beginning in the Han dynasty and cautions that the exact origin is hard to trace, with many folktales attached to the day. Taiwan's Executive Yuan gives a Daoist account: touring the lantern displays and guessing riddles grew out of the custom of lighting lamps for blessing at the Daoist Shangyuan fast, and the lanterns themselves developed from earlier torches. Whatever the first cause, the day sits at the full moon that closes the New Year season.^{[2, 9]}

What it marks

The festival marks the end of the New Year celebrations, and its names reflect the night and the lamps. Yuanxiao Jie is the festival of the First Primordial night, Dengjie is the lantern festival, and Shangyuan Jie is the festival of the First Primordial. Daoism treats the fifteenth as one of the three Primordial days of the Three Officials, the supervisors of heaven, earth and the waters; on the first-month day, Taiwanese sources say, the Official of Heaven bestows blessing.^[2–4]

How it is kept

Pingxi sky lanterns risingIllustration · AI-generated

Houses and streets are traditionally hung with lanterns, often of bright red paper, and cities mount displays as the moon grows full. Children carry lanterns around their neighbourhoods after dark, and people gather to solve riddles written on the lanterns. Families eat yuanxiao, also called tangyuan, round sticky rice dumplings whose roundness echoes the first full moon of the year and stands for the whole family circle.^{[5–7, 10]}

Across traditions

Chinese folk practice and the Daoist festival meet on this night. In Korea the same first full moon is Jeongwol Daeboreum, the great full moon of the first lunar month. Koreans mark the day by cracking nuts with their teeth, a custom for good luck and health.^{[4, 8, 11]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.