英语作文:元宵节的习俗

英语作文：元宵节的习俗

英语作文：元宵节的习俗

The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar

month, usually 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.

This day's important activity is watching lanterns.

Throughout the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Buddhism

flourished in China. One emperor heard that Buddhist monks

would watch sarira, or remains from the cremation of Buddha's

body, and light lanterns to worship Buddha on the 15th day of

the 1st lunar month, so he ordered to light lanterns in the

imperial palace and temples to show respect to Buddha on this

day. Later, the Buddhist rite developed into a grand festival

among common people and its influence expanded from the

Central Plains to the whole of China.

Till today, the lantern festival is still held each year around

the country. Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the

streets, attracting countless visitors. Children will hold lf-made

or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets, extremely excited.

"Guessing lantern riddles"is an esntial part of the Festival.

Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post

them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they

can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check

their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity

emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song

Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of

wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.

People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on this day, so it

is also called the "Yuanxiao Festival."Yuanxiao also has another

name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice

flour with ro petals, same, bean paste, jujube paste, walnut

meat, dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling. Tangyuan can be

boiled, fried or steamed. It tastes sweet and delicious. What’s

more, tangyuan in Chine has a similar pronunciation with

"tuanyuan”, meaning reunion. So people eat them to denote

union, harmony and happiness for the family.