History
| Lantern Festival | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 元宵節 or 上元節 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 元宵节 or 上元节 | ||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||
| Chinese | 十五暝 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | fifteenth night | ||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||
| Quốc ngữ | Tết Thượng Nguyên or Tết Nguyên Tiêu | ||||||
The first month of the lunar calendar is called yuanmonth, and in ancient times people called night xiaoin Mandarin; therefore, the day is called Yuan Xiao（元宵） Festival in China and Taiwan/Formosa. The fifteenth day is the first night one can see a full moon in that lunar year. According to East Asian tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve puzzles on lanterns, eat yuanxiao ('元宵'in Mandarin) (a glutinous rice ball, also known as tangyuan (simplified Chinese: 汤圆; traditional Chinese: 湯圓; pinyin: tāngyuán) and enjoy a family reunion.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
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“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
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