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China celebrates traditional Lantern Festival
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-09 15:45


A folk stuntman scoops molten iron before tossing it against a concrete wall to celebrate the Lantern Festival in Nuanquan town of Yuxian County, Hebei province February 8, 2009. [Agencies]

More than 150 plants with their names carrying the character "Deng" or "lantern" were exhibited in the Shanghai arboretum, some even with their shape resembling a lamp.

Lantern Festival, which fell on the fifteenth day of the first month in China's lunar calendar, was seen as end of the Spring Festival.

During the festival, people, especially children, go out at night carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns. Young ladies who normally stayed at home were chaperoned in the streets in the hope of finding love.

According to Wu Bing'an, a professor of Folklore, 17 ethnic groups, including Han, Mongolian, Korean, Hui, Tibetan, and Manchu, had the tradition to celebrate the festival.

The Lantern Festival came into the list of China's intangible cultural heritage last year.