This year's Lantern Festival falls on March 4 and it's one of the three major traditional festivals in Chinese folk (the other two are Spring Festival and Mid-autumn Festival). With a history of more than 2000 years, Lantern Festival is celebrated grandly. Its celebrative activities mainly consist of three parts: the daytime Huahui (lively and jolly celebrations), the nighttime Denghui (display of various lanterns) and eating Yuanxiao (sweet dumplings made of glutinous rice flour).

Huahui is held at daytime and mainly on famous streets or in big temples. It's made up of various entertainment activities including yangko opera, stilt walking, landboat rowing and the most fabulous lion dance which, accompanied by the clamors of gongs and drums, always gathers the most spotlight on the site.

*Where to find Huahui?
Date/Time: 9am to 11am, March 4
Location: main streets in Yanqing County

Date/Time: 10am to 11am, March 4
Location: Cuiliu Avenue, Suzhuang Village, Liangxiang, Fanghshan District

Date/Time: 9am to 10:30am, March 4
Location: Caiyu Township, Daxing District

Denghui is held at nighttime and it's where Lantern Festival gets its name from, a festival to appreciate various lanterns. Lanterns will be made into various shapes, the lotus flower, the aniseed, the dragon and so on. Beijing's best place to appreciate the lanterns may be Dengshikou (entrance to the lantern market) in Dongcheng District. Chaoyang Park (No.1, Nongzhanguan Nanlu, Chaoyang District) also holds annual lantern festivals.

Yuanxiao to Lantern Festival is the same as dumplings to Spring Festival, but different from dumplings which are considered as a kind of staple food, Yuanxiao is more like a kind of snack taken at late night. It is sweet dumpling made of glutinous rice flour. Traditional Yuanxiao stuffings mainly are hawthorn white sugar, white sugar sweet-scented osmanthus, mashed Chinese dates pine nut and sweet bean paste, which are enriched in modern society to include cream, chocolate and so on. Yuanxiao is available at various supermarkets. Long cherished Yuanxiao brands include Daoxiangcun, Gongyifu, Yixinfu and so on.

Related: Lantern festival events