The Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival

元宵节

本篇适合：拓展知识面

春节刚过完不久我们就迎来了元宵节。在古代，元宵节是一个非常热闹的节日，街上会挂起各式各样的花灯。元宵节也是一个家人团聚的节日，大家一起吃元宵、赏花灯、猜灯谜，多有趣呀！接下来我们来了解一下元宵节的一些庆祝传统吧！

The Lantern Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China. It has a history of 2,000 years, which is the first vital（重要的）festival after Spring Festival. On that day people will hang（悬挂）lanterns to celebrate the festival. It can be exciting to go out and guess（猜测）the lantern riddles（谜语）, or just stay at home with your family eating the sweet dumplings and watching TV shows.

by Sea

Eating Yuanxiao

Yuanxiao (sweet dumplings) has a long history since it became a food in China. In the Song Dynasty（朝代）, people usually tried to eat new food on the Lantern Festival. So Yuanxiao appeared. In the ancient times, Yuanxiao was quite expensive; few people could eat it at the time.

There are many different flavors（口味）of Yuanxiao, the stuffing（填充物）can be sugar, rose, sesame（芝麻）, bean paste（豆沙）, walnut（核桃）, jujube（枣）and other things like pork（猪肉）and beef. Whatever you like can be filled（填充）in it. Chinese people like to eat Yuanxiao because of its good meaning—reunion（团聚）.

Walking on Stilts（高跷）

Walking on stilts is a popular folk（民间的）art in China. It appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period（春秋时期）. On that day, people usually take out the stilts made by themselves and walk down the street.

Lion Dance

Lion dance is a brilliant（杰出的）folk art in China. During the Lantern Festival or other celebrations, people usually do lion and dragon dances to liven things up. There are different actions including prancing（腾跃）, kicking（蹬腿）and rolling（翻滚）. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms Period（三国时期）.

判断对错。正确的填T，错误的填F。

( ) The Lantern Festival has a history of 2000 years.

( ) In ancient times, Yuanxiao was very cheap.

( ) There is only one favor of Yuanxiao.

( ) Walking on stilts appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period.

( ) Lion dance originated in the Spring and Autumn Period.

中文大意及答案请见第47页。