The Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Jie is a traditional Chinese festival, which is on the 15th of the first month of the Chinese New Year. The festival marks the end of the celebrations of the Chinese New Year.

Chinese started to celebrate the Lantern Festival from the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 221 AD). Like most other Chinese festivals, there is also a story behind the Festival. It is also believed that the festival has Taoist origins.

This is a festival for people having fun. On the night of the festival, people go on streets with a variety of lanterns under the full moon, watching lions or dragon dancing, playing Chinese riddles and games, and lighting up firecrackers. There is really a lot of fun for the young and the old.

Yuanxiao (glutinous rice ball) or Tangyuan is the special food for the Lantern Festival. It is believed that Yuanxiao is named after a palace maid, Yuanxiao, of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty. Yuanxiao is a kind of sweet dumpling, which is made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing.

Yuanxiao is sticky, sweet and round in shape, symbolizing family unity, completeness and happiness.

Yuanxiao is made from glutinous rice flour. You can prepare glutinous rice flour in a bowl and slowly add hot water until they mix into dough. Then you can pinch off the dough and roll them into small balls.

Then you can fill Yuanxiao with either sweet or savoury fillings. Sweet fillings are often made from peanut butter, black sesame seeds or red beans. But some people prefer the savoury fillings made from meat, mushroom and green vegetables.

Then try to enwrap all the fillings into glutinous rice dough.

You can make different forms for different fillings.

Ready? Then you can drop these balls into boiling water and cook them for about 8 minutes until they float. Okay, just enjoy them!

Click here to see the English Chinese translation of this article.