Yuanxiao Festival, also known as the Lantern Festival, falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of China. As “yuan” means “the first” and “xiao” means “night”, the first night of the full moon in the new year is therefore called the Yuanxiao Festival.
Sichuan Zigong Lantern Show
The tradition of lighting lanterns to celebrate Yuanxiao Festival dates back to the Han dynasty and flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties. As depicted in the poem, “spectacular fireworks and colored lanterns light up the sky like fiery trees and silver flowers, tonight the city gates are unlocked and the curfew is lifted”. Lantern Festival celebration lasted for as long as ten days in the Ming dynasty. People hang up and light all kinds of colored lanterns around Yuanxiao Festival to appreciate and compete with each other. Guessing lantern riddles, eating tangyuan (glutinous rice ball) to pray for family unity and walking on bridges to ward off diseases are all part of a series of Yuanxiao Festival celebrations.
Zigong Lantern Show in Japan
Zigong Lantern Show in New York, the United States
Zigong Lantern Show in Russia
As time goes by, Yuanxiao Festival celebration becomes more diversified. Dragon lantern dance, lion dance, stilt walking, land boat dance, yangge dance, Taiping drum dance, Taige parade and a variety of traditional folk events add new flavor to typical festive celebrations.
How to make a Zigong lantern of Sichuan province
Celebrating the Spring Festival with Lights and Colors: The Best Lantern in the South of the Yangtze River – Xiashi Colored Lantern
Xiashi Lantern was among the first to be added to the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006. The following course displays Xiashi colored lantern in multiple dimensions by introducing the Haining Xiashi Lantern Festival, explaining the characteristics, categories and unique production techniques of Xiashi colored lantern and showing how to make vase lantern, one of the varieties of Xiashi colored lantern.
Xiashi Colored-lantern
Original 3D Magic & Acrobatic Show – Golden Cudgel
Once upon a time, the heaven and the earth were in chaos, and demons were everywhere. In order to erase the demons, the golden cudgel chooses a brave and kind boy to go to Huaguo Mountains to cultivate his skills with the drunken monkey family.
In the Dragon Palace, the golden cudgel was ambushed by the evil demon, unfortunately captured. Relying on his martial arts and magic skills learned from Golden Cudgel, the little boy led the monkeys to fight bravely with the demon, and finally defeated it.
Peace was restored to the world, and the little boy lived happily with all the living beings.
Original 3D Magic & Acrobatic Show – Golden Cudgel
Yuanxiao Festival is commonly viewed as the end of Spring Festival celebration. A new year awaits our exploration and creation. On the first night of the full moon when families are reunited and colored lanterns are brighter than the starry sky, China Cultural Center in Stockholm extends our most sincere new year’s greetings to all together with Chinese Language School Xing Zhi Xue Tang and Mulan Theater in Sweden.
Sources：
四川省文化和旅游厅
浙江省文化和旅游厅
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