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Lantern Festival

Sweet sticky rice balls in soup on the first full moon of the lunar year.

​台南巷口花燈兼自由創意彩繪
Photo: -Zest, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What is eaten for Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and closes the New Year season. Families walk out to see lanterns and eat round balls of sticky rice flour, a shape that stands for the full moon and for a family that is whole. In the south they are called tangyuan and are made by wrapping dough round a filling of black sesame, peanut or red bean. In the north they are called yuanxiao and are made by rolling the filling in dry flour until it is coated.

The dishes

TangyuanFilled sticky rice balls in sweet soup, the dish of the night.Red bean pasteAnother common filling for the rice balls.

Also part of it, and being written: Black sesame soup (Black sesame is the best-loved filling and flavour.).

About this page

Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Lantern Festival" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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