IN LIVING COLOR DECEMBER CHALLENGE
The Lantern Festival — Sort Of
Colorful lights of the Chinese New Year
The Lantern Festival is celebrated in China at the close of the Chinese New Year (the fifteenth day of the first lunar month). Usually this falls in February or March. Its importance stretches back about two millennia to the Western Han Dynasty.
There are many competing legends about the origins of this festival, so the reasons for hanging the lanterns outside homes depend on what version one prefers. It may have to do with the final retreat of winter or might be a celebration of the Taoist deity Tianguan, whose birthday also falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. It was also a tradition that Buddhist monks would hang lanterns on this day, and the habit may have been picked up in time by the general populace. There are many other origin stories, some rather fanciful.
Long ago, the lanterns were simple, homemade affairs. In modern times, the lanterns have become more involved, including ones shaped like animals.
I have not attended this festival. But I did have the fortune of seeing a quasi-version of it that travels the US. In 2019, it was being held in Pomona, California, close to where I lived at the time. The show was put on by Hanart Culture and is called the Magical Chinese Lantern Festival. We went to see it just after Christmas before the Chinese New Year had begun.
This year (2023), it is being shown at the Birmingham Zoo in Alabama.
The Hanart Culture version displays some lanterns, but the real attraction is the colorful and intricate lighted displays made of thin metal frames and colored glass or porcelain. Over a hundred are scattered through the parks and waterways of whatever venue is hosting the event.
Shows were held during the evening amid the displays. We stopped and watched a concert, played on traditional Chinese instruments. There was a folk dance that went along with it. The troop was from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and the narration spoke of hope for a time when everyone from all regions of China could get along in peace and harmony. It was a subtle dig at the PRC’s current domestic human rights issues.
I’d heard there was also a martial arts performance, but somehow we missed it.
I did not know what to expect at this festival, but was glad that we took the time to drive over and see it. Much effort had been put into creating beautiful works of art. This spin-off will have to do until I happen to be in the PRC or Taiwan at the end of the Chinese New Year.
For those interested, here is a link to Hanart Culture. I am not promoting them, nor do I have any affiliation with the company.
Thank you JoAnn Ryan and Allisonn Church, editors of In Living Color, for the December challenge.
Here are a few of many great entries to the December challenge:
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