1. Chinese New Year Lantern Festival
by Didge Daniels

2. General Information on the Chinese New Year
It is the most important Chinese holiday
Families and friends get together for fireworks, feasts, and parades
Time to honor ancestors
The holiday lasts 15 days, with many people only celebrating the eve, the first couple of days, and the last day, while traditional people observe the entire holiday

3. General information cont.
Starts on first day of the lunar year
Many myths about how it first started

4. Lanterns festivals origins
Believed to be originated in the Han dynasty, who paid tribute to the origins of the universe on this night. The ceremony was held in the evening, so lanterns were used to light the palace. Han rulers normally imposed a curfew on their subjects, but during this time, they lifted the curfew so that everyone could see the illuminated palace

5. The lantern festival overview
Yuán xiāo jié 元宵節
湯圓 tāng yuán- a glutinous riceball eaten at this time
In the present, the cosmic and religious significance has been lost
3 day festival marks the end of the Chinese new year

6. Activities during the Lantern Festival
Hanging laterns
Eating rice flour dumplings
Solving lantern riddles

7. Activities during the Lantern Festival
Hanging laterns
Eating rice flour dumplings
Solving lantern riddles

8. Lantern riddles
People hang laterns outside their house, with a riddle on them, sometimes with a object or character attached to the lantern. You may attempt to answer the riddle, and if you answer correctly, you were generally rewarded there on the spot.

9. Bibliography
Otto, Carolyn. Celebrate Chinese New Year, Washington DC, National Geographic, 2008
Henderson, Helene. Holiday Symbols and Customs, Omnigraphics, 2009
Kaplan, Leslie C. Chinese New Year, New York, Rosen Publishing Group, 2004
• Name of the author, last name first.
• Title of the book, underlined.
• Place of publication (usually a city)
• Publisher
• Year of publication
So a listing for a book would be:
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, New York: Scholastic, 2000