The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month，usually in February or March in the Gregorian calendar（this year on Feb 8）
元宵节在农历正月十五，通常是公历二月或三月（今年是2月8日）
"Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential part of the Lantern Festival. Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.
“猜灯谜”是节日的核心部分。灯笼的主人会将谜语写在一张纸条上并贴在灯笼上。如果游客能解开灯谜，他们就能将纸条拿下来去灯笼的主人那看答案是否正确。如果答案是对的，他们将会得到一份小礼物。这项活动最早在宋朝（公元960-1279）出现，当人们在赏灯的时候开始。由于猜灯谜极具趣味性，又需要动脑筋，所以后来在全社会各阶层中收到普遍欢迎。
People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on this day, so it is also called the "Yuanxiao Festival."Yuanxiao also has another name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutinousrice flour with rose petals, sesame, bean paste, jujube paste, walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling. Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or steamed. It tastes sweet and delicious. What's more, tangyuan in Chinese has a similar pronunciation with "tuanyuan”, meaning reunion. So people eat them to denote union, harmony and happiness for the family.
人们在元宵节的时候会吃元宵，因此这个节日也就叫做元宵节。“元宵”还有另外一个名字—汤圆，用糯米粉做皮，玫瑰花瓣、芝麻、豆酱、枣泥、胡桃肉、干果、糖和食用油做馅，做成的小面球团。汤圆可以煮、炸或者蒸来吃。吃起来甜甜的，很美味。而且，汤圆在中国和“团圆”这个词的发音相似，代表着团团圆圆。因此人们吃汤圆会象征着家庭的团圆、和谐和快乐。
