【节日】元宵节

更多英文学习内容，欢迎关注新浪微博@新联学院英语教育广播电台 主播：Yura 本期文稿 Lantern Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. This is the first full moon of the New Year, symbolizing unity and perfection. Lantern Festival is an important part of Spring Festival, and marks the official end of the long holiday. There are many legends concerning the origins of Lantern Festival. According to one legend, once in ancient times, a celestial swan came into the mortal world where it was shot down by a hunter. The Jade Emperor, the highest god in Heaven, vowed to avenge the swan. He started making plans to send a troop of celestial soldiers and generals to Earth on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with orders to incinerate all humans and animals. But the other celestial beings disagreed with this course of action, and risked their lives to warn the people of Earth. As a result, before and after the fifteenth day of the first month, every family hung red lanterns outside their doors and set off firecrackers and fireworks, giving the impression that their homes were already burning. By successfully tricking the Jade Emperor in this way, humanity was saved from extermination. According to another legend, during the time of Emperor Han Wudi of the Han Dynasty, a palace woman named Yuan Xiao was prevented from carrying out her filial duty of visiting her parents on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Distraught, she said she would kill herself by jumping into a well. In order to help Yuan Xiao fulfill her duty as a filial daughter, the scholar Dongfang Shuo came up with a scheme. He told Emperor Han Wudi that the Jade Emperor, the highest god in Heaven, had ordered the Fire God to burn down the capital city of Chang'an on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month. Anxious to find a way to save his city, the emperor asked Dongfang Shuo what he should do. Dongfang Shuo replied that the Fire God loved red lanterns more than anything. He advised that the streets be hung with red lanterns, and the emperor, empress, concubines, and court officials come out of the palace to see them. In this way, the Fire God would be distracted and disaster averted. The emperor followed Dongfang Shuo's advice, and while everyone was out viewing the lanterns, Yuan Xiao was able to sneak out of the palace and be reunited with her parents. Eating yuanxiao (sweet dumplings made with glutinous rice flour) is one of the special traditions of Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival is also called Yuan Xiao Festival. Another name for yuanxiao is tangyuan, which literally means "boiled spheres." 　Yuan Xiao is the special food for the Lantern Festival. It is believed that Yuan Xiao is named after a palace maid, Yuan Xiao, of Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty. Yuan Xiao is a kind of sweet dumpling, which is made with sticky rice flour filled with sweet stuffing. And the Festival is named after the famous dumpling. It is very easy to cook - simply dump them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes - and eaten as a dessert. 　"Guessing lantern riddles “is an essential part of the 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. As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata. In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yang dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged. On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival. Some local governments will even organize a fireworks party. On the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.