The 15th day of the 1st month in the Chinese lunisolar calendar brings us to 元宵節 (Lantern Festival), the last day of the Spring Festival (née Chinese New Year) celebrations! The origins of the festival however, are slightly lost in the mists of time (one of the problems of having a 5000 year history! ;)) and depending where one looks… had Imperial, Daoist or Buddhist roots (or any of those in combination)!
It is however generally accepted that since the 15th day is the first full moon of the New Year, it should be celebrated by displaying brightly coloured lanterns, something which certainly keeps the children well entertained! ;)
Like all Chinese festivals, food plays a big part of the festivities and for this, 元宵 (Yuan Xiao) otherwise known as 湯圓 (glutinous rice balls) with various fillings cooked in a sweet broth are consumed copiously as they round shape and homophonic names signify wholeness & unity! :D
Northern and Southern Chinese do differ in how they make these tasty little moresels however. In the south, balls of glutinous rice flour dough will have a hole poked into it, filled with whatever filling and then rolled once more to close the whole. In the north, the filling is pressed into a hardened core which is lightly wetted and then rolled in dry glutinous rice flour. This snowball coating method is repeated till the desired thickness of coating is reached! Cunning eh? ;)
It seems to me that for the Chinese ANY event connected to the moon-calendar is a good opportunity to eat glutinous rice balls ;-) ?!
Comment by SuSu — 08:35:26 UTC on the 13th of February, 2006
Only if it’s winter! Otherwise… it’ll be mooncakes (Mid-Autumn) or Zong Zi/glutinous rice dumplings (Dragon Boat Festival). In any case… it’s still food, food, food! :D
Comment by Jonathan Stanley — 13:28:40 UTC on the 13th of February, 2006