Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 1st month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar, during the full moon. It marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. During the festival, children go out at night carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on lanterns, which are always red to symbolise good fortune. Rice dumplings or tangyuan, a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, are eaten this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home.