People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on the Lantern Festival, so it is aslo called the “Yuanxiao Festival”, Yuanxiao also has another name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutionous rice with rose petals, sesame, bean paste, walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling. Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or steamed. It tastes sweet and has the meaning of reunion. So people eat them to denote union, harmony and happiness for the family.
"Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential 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).
南得珍贵
