The Lantern Festival or the Spring Lantern Festival (Yuánxiāo Jié / 元宵节)is a
Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar.
It marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations,
and usually falls on some day 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.
During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night to temples carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns.
In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, and only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones.
In modern times, lanterns have been embellished with many complex designs.
For example, lanterns are now often made in the shape of animals.
The lanterns can symbolize the people letting go of their past selves and getting new ones,
which they will let go of the next year.
The lanterns are almost always red to symbolize good fortune.
In Hong Kong and Taiwan, it is commercialized as the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day.
It is not to be confused with the Mid-Autum Festival;
which is sometimes also known as the "Lantern Festival" in locations such as Singapore and Malaysia.
Now the Chinese Lantern Festival is becoming popular in Western countries.
In London, the United Kingdom has the Magicl Lantern Festival.
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