Lantern Festival is a huge event during the Spring Festival. The Cantonese-style celebration of the festival will enable tourists to vividly feel the local customs and ritual. At night, the entire city is shrouded in glaring light, while main trunk roads and scenic spots are lit up, presenting indescribable beauty.
Celebrating the Lantern Festival is a traditional custom of Guangzhou citizens. The Lantern Festival, also called (Yuanxiao Festival) falls on the fifteenth day of the first month according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
The lantern fair is a longstanding traditional activity during the festival. In as early as the Southern Han Dynasty, candles were lit up in the Flower Pagoda of Changshou Temple (the present Six Banyan Temple), which was a symbol of a coming harvest year. In the Qing Dynasty, the lantern fair was held in "Si Pai Lou" of the present Jiefang Zhonglu. After the 1911 Revolution, the popularity of the event was suddenly dampened. Only until China was liberated from colonial rule that the lantern fair regained its popularity.
The lantern fair features a variety of lanterns, most notably palace lanterns, silk material lanterns, revolving door lanterns, pictographic paper light, fruit-shaped lanterns, dragon lanterns and lantern buildings. Dragon lanterns and lantern buildings are large-sale lanterns, consisting of several lanterns strung up together.
In fact, the lantern fair in Guangzhou is a civic exhibition of decorated lanterns. Apart from lantern exhibition, lantern fairs of other regions, such as Zigong of Sichuang and Datong of Shanxi usually are held in Yuexiu Park, Martyrs’ Park and Guangzhou Cultural Park.
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