Every year, on the 15th day of the first Lunar Calendar month the Lantern Festival officially ends the celebrations for Chinese New Year. This year, the festival is on February 7th. The Lantern Festival is celebrated so widely in South-East Asia that it is sometimes called the Second New Year. Examples of countries that celebrate the festival are China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

During the night of the festival thousands of red lanterns are lit and flown into the night sky. Each lantern is individually decorated. Some decorate the lanterns with prayers, whereas some prefer to write riddles. Traditionally, in China, the Lantern Festival is considered a day for lovers. Watch the clip below from Chiang Mai, Thailand to see the beauty in this phenomenon!

Happy Lantern Festival

Other Celebrations in February:

Waitangi Day

Independence Days in February

St. Valentine’s Day

National Foundation Day: Japan

Setsubun: Japan

This entry was posted on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 8:00 pm and is filed under days of significance, East Asia, General . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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