Google doodle celebrates Lantern Festival, Lunar New Year 2022!

Happy Lantern Festival! 

Today’s Doodle celebrates the Lantern Festival on the first full moon of the Lunar calendar. The Lantern Festival is also called Shangyuan Festival, which is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the full moon, the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar. Usually falling in February or early March on the Gregorian calendar, it marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations.

Traditions call for celebrants to light lanterns and send them floating into the sky as a symbolic act that honors one’s ancestors and symbolizes the release of the past while shining a light on the year to come.    

During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns. In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, and only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones.

Modern-day celebrations of the Lantern Festival have ancient roots. Stretching back over 2,000 years to the start of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the customs that characterize the holiday are a testament to the power of China’s oral storytelling traditions. The most common type of lantern seen across the skies today are small orbs, but many artisans create unique designs that take on all sizes and shapes—from giant dragons to lanterns small enough for children to carry.

To add an extra element of fun, many people slip small pieces of paper inscribed with riddles inside their lanterns. Some riddles are even made so difficult, they’ve earned.

Eaten during the Lantern Festival, the people of Southern China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia Northern China eat glutinous rice balls typically filled with sweet red bean paste, sesame paste, or peanut butter. Chinese people believe that the round shape of the balls and the bowls in which they are served symbolize family togetherness.

Source: Wikipedia / Google doodles

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