Lantern Festival

I was in Beijing for the Lantern Festival, or Yuan Xiao Jie, as it's known on the mainland. It celebrates the first full moon on the 15th day of lunar New Year. The parks are full of colorful silk and paper lanterns in all sorts of shapes, though I didn't go look at any this year.

I did see plenty of fireworks, though. The city was like a war zone for two nights running. People set them off everywhere. The video is taken from my apartment window.


Last year, the state television company had a huge fireworks show next to its new headquarters, which was still under construction. The building caught fire and is still a burnt out shell today. I was in town that night, but didn't see the fire. This picture is from the Internet.

Yuan Xiao translates roughly as 'first evening' and is commemorated by eating 'tang yuan,' or 'soup balls.' They are glutinous rice dumplings with a sweet filling, usually made from ground black sesame seeds and sugar.


The stores were full of tang yuan. Sky grew up eating tang yuan as a snack in Shanghai. Our housekeeper would sometimes make them for him by hand.


Sky still eats them sometimes as an after school snack.