Lantern
Festival is on the fifteenth day of
first lunar month, which marks the
end of the series of Chinese New Year
celebrations.
Traditionally,
on the Lantern Festival night,
children went out carrying bright
lanterns that were often made in the
shapes of legendary gods and animals,
such as Monkey King and rabbit, while
adults would parade the lanterns
under the very first full moon of the
year.
The Lantern
Festival is also known, along with
the seventh day in the seventh lunar
month, as China’s Valentine’s
Day. In the ancient times, it was one
of the few nights when young ladies
were allowed going out, and lovers
would be able to meet each other on
the street when watching lantern
shows.
On the night
of 12 Feruary this year, fireworks
lit up the skies and blazing lanterns
dotted the Chinese cities as the 2006
Lantern Festival began. The
"Ping-pung" sound was the
main rhythm of the celebration as
Chinese grasped their last chance to
set off firecracker.
An
ancient city gate on the festival
night in a northern Chinese city, Wei
County
The day
before that, residents of Wei County
in northern China's Hebei Province
kicked off the celebration with their
300 year-old tradition – dashuhua
(beat flowers out of a tree).
A
man in Wei County performing
traditional dashuhua
The performer
carried a wet felt hat and wore a
sheepskin jacket inside-out. With a
wooden ladle that had been soaked in
water for three days, he repeatedly
scooped up from a bucket the boiling
liquid of melted iron, and threw it
with force against the ancient city
wall, producing sparks which were
like millions of colourful flowers
burst out of an invisible tree.
