Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival, also called Shangyuan Festival and Cap Go Meh, is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar, during the full moon. Usually falling in February or early March on the Gregorian calendar, it marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations.

There are several beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival. However, its roots trace back more than 2,000 years and is popularly linked to the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han dynasty. Emperor Ming, an advocate of Buddhism, noticed Buddhist monks would light lanterns in temples on the fifteenth day of the first lunisolar month. As a result, he ordered all households, temples and the imperial palace to light lanterns on that evening. From there it developed into a folk custom.

Another legend associates the Lantern Festival with Taoism.

Lion dance (舞獅), walk on stilts (踩高蹺), riddle games (猜燈謎), dragon dances (耍龍燈) are very popular activities during the festival day and the days following. The lantern riddle, according to Japanese scholars, became popular as early as the Northern Song dynasty (960–1126).

Today, the displaying of lanterns is still a major event on the fifteenth day of the first lunisolar month throughout China. Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan Province, for example, holds a lantern fair each year in Culture Park. During the Lantern Festival, the park is a virtual ocean of lanterns.