The Chinese Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Festival (after the signature dish of the holiday, yuanxiao) dates back 2,000 years. It falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and marks the end of the 15-day New Year holiday period. The celebration organized for this day by the Confucius Institute of the University of Szeged focused on culture, community experience, family and recreation.
As we wrote earlier, this year the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Dragon, began on February 10, so February 24 was the day of the Lantern Festival. The staff of the Confucius Institute of the University of Szeged welcomed those interested in the event hall of the institute.
The organizers did their best to give the participants the experience of a real Chinese holiday. After explaining the traditions of the festival, those interested had to solve puzzles related to the lanterns together, and they also got to know a dragon dance, the Dong. After the various games, there was also the opportunity to taste Yuanxiao, the characteristic food specialty of the Lantern Festival.
– Today we not only revived the traditions directly related to the Lantern Festival, but also creatively rethought the two programs of the Chinese Spring Festival. The dance show “Share” and the magic show “Finding Other Parties” highlight the vitality of contemporary China, so we were able to give those who joined us an even more complete experience. This event also proves that it doesn’t matter where we come from, the desire for a better future brings us together, we bridge the differences and work together to create a better world – said Wang Rui, the Chinese director of the SZTE Confucius Institute.
At the event, the hall was decorated with colorful lanterns, red Chinese couplets and cutouts of the so-called “fu character”. The popular Chinese song “China in Lights” greeted the arrivals. At the beginning of the event, Jiang Chenxin, the Chinese teacher of the SZTE Confucius Institute and the host of the event, briefly introduced the Lantern Festival and taught the guests how to say the blessing of the festival in Chinese. Afterwards, Chinese director Wang Rui and institute lecturer Gao Xingzi explained the significance of the holiday and shared its four main features: eating yuanxiao, admiring the lanterns, watching the dragon/lion dances and watching the national festival gala on TV. Nikolett, a student at the Confucius Institute’s high school training center, and Chinese teacher Yang Zihan introduced everyone to the fun, new version of the dragon dance.
During an eco-friendly program led by teacher Jiang Chenxin, viewers were able to see card tricks using hand-painted cards made from recycled office paper waste.
After the performance, the participants were free to experience the excitement and color of the night fairs. The participants walked among the pretty lanterns and solved puzzles, folded paper lanterns and wrote the character “fu” on them, and also got to know an old Chinese game. They could also take photos in front of the photo wall, holding hand-made lanterns by Gu Qianyi or a large rainbow-colored paper kite to capture the moments. Participants who collected all the stamps in the sessions could participate in the round game and win Chinese specialties.
At the end of the event, the students of the calligraphy and painting department of the Confucius Institute selected the luckiest participants of the evening, who were enriched with gifts, and the special prize winner received the couplets of the Spring Festival and the Chinese character “fu (福)” written by the teacher of the Confucius Institute. The “chefs” of the Confucius Institute prepared rice “pearls” (mini-yuanxiao) filled with sesame seeds for everyone. Although the special rice was new to many participants, everyone loved this “dessert”.
The series of cultural events of the 2024 Spring Festival organized by the Confucius Institute of the University of Szeged ended with the “Joy and Jostle Lantern Festival”, which was also the beginning of new collaborations.
SZTEinfo/Confucius Institute
Photo: Bartha Karina