The Lantern Festival is on the 15th day of the first month on the Chinese calendar.
This is an important festival in China as this is also the first full moon in the new year.
So how did the children celebrated this festival?
A Party of the Lanterns
Lanterns are one of the unique handcrafts of the Chinese nation. Children at Angel learn to make the lanterns by themselves and these lanterns are different from those in ancient times. Children used various colors to paint the lanterns and made them in different shapes. Some lanterns even have cartoon characters on them, for example, the monkey with a colorful face and a strange superman. These lanterns resembles a mix of different cultures in modern times.
As a result Angel Kindergarten became a place with joy, festivity and creativity.
Eat Sweet Dumplings
We have a custom of eating sweet dumplings since ancient times. We explained the secret of the Lantern Festival to the children at Angel. “Yuanxiao” is what we call “sweet dumplings”. As for the name and the process of making sweet dumplings, there is a difference between dumpling of northern and southern China. In the northern area, the dumplings are shaken out and stuffing will be cut into pieces and put into the glutinous rice dough. However, in southern area, people always wrap the dumplings.
Children were really excited to make the sweet dumplings by themselves. First they rubbed the flour and then put the stuffing into the dough after which they were able to make the sweet dumplings with the help of teachers.
The Dragon and Lion Dance
The dragon and lion dance represents the good start of the new year. The children couldn’t wait to perform the dragon and lion dance after watching the show several times. They wanted to express their deepest blessings to each other.
The Lantern Festival is filled with folk culture. Children learn to know more about their traditional culture by making lanterns and sweet dumplings as well as eating the sweet dumplings. It is obvious that children had a really fantastic Lantern Festival.
