31. convenient
32. thrust
33. fat
34. waste time
35. fertile
36. rich
37. dirty
38. clean
39. happy
40. justice
41. fair
42. cheap
43. expensive
44. fear
45. beautiful
46. laugh
47. doubt
48. good
Download
49. bad
50. hurry
51. easy
52. healthy
53. economic
54. excite
55. old
56. new
57. open
58. closed
59. near
60. pretty
61. delicious
62. empty
63. almost
64. spicy
65. lazy
Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month,
usually in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. As early
as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25), it had become a
festival with great significance.
This day’s important activity is watching lanterns. Throughout the
Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Buddhism flourished in China.
One emperor heard that Buddhist monks would watch sarira,
or remains from the cremation of Buddha’s body, and light lanterns
to worship Buddha on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, so he
ordered to light lanterns in the imperial palace and temples to
show respect to Buddha on this day. Later, the Buddhist rite
developed into a grand festival among common people and its
influence expanded from the Central Plains to the whole of China.
Till today, the lantern festival is still held each year around the
country. Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the
streets, attracting countless visitors. Children will hold self-made
or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets, extremely excited.
“Guessing lantern riddles”is an essential part of the Festival.
Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post
them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles,
they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check
their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity
emerged during people’s enjoyment of lanterns in the Song
Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full
of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.
People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on this day, so it is
also called the “Yuanxiao Festival.”Yuanxiao also has another
name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutinous
rice flour with rose petals, sesame, bean paste, jujube paste,
walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling.
Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or steamed. It tastes sweet and
delicious. What’s more, tangyuan in Chinese has a similar
pronunciation with “tuanyuan“, meaning reunion. So people
eat them to denote union, harmony and happiness for the family.
In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon
lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance,
walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged.
On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a
beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the
Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival. Some
local governments will even organize a fireworks party. On the
night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become
really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.