The Lantern Festival

元宵节 Yuán xiāo jié

Fifteen days after the New Year (15th day of the 1st lunar month), the Lantern Festival celebrates the first full moon of the year. For the occasion, families decorate their porches with lanterns and gather to enjoy glutinous rice balls together. Filled with sesame, peanuts, or beans, they represent the moon. As night falls, fireworks and firecrackers are set off. Everyone goes out to admire the illuminations. Children and adults carry lanterns or lamps suspended from long bamboo poles. They come in all sorts of shapes: fish, roosters, birds... In classic novels, many love stories begin with a meeting on the evening of this festival.

Some expressions:
团圆 tuányuán: 1. family reunion; family gathering; union 2. sweet dumplings
吃团圆饭 chī tuányuán fàn: eating sweet dumplings to celebrate family reunions

逛庙会 guàng miào huì: stroll at the Spring Festival Fair

糖葫芦 táng húlu: candied hawthorn skewers

张灯结彩 zhāngdēng jiécǎi: decorated houses
扎彩灯 zhā cǎidēng: making lanterns with various designs
观灯 guāndēng: stroll to admire decorative lanterns; joyful entertainment of decorative lantern parades
放烟火 fàng yànhuǒ: setting off fireworks