Made In Macao | Cheers for the Lantern Festival

Jenny Lao-Phillips

Chinese New Year, as with any other holiday, passes in the blink of an eye. After the Lunar New Year, there used to be another important celebration, Yuen Siu 元宵, also known as the Lantern Festival, or nowadays, better known as the Chinese version of Valentine’s Day. Yuen Siu Festival falls on the 15th day of the Lunar Year and although it is still being celebrated now, it hasn’t been considered a very important celebration. At a certain period of time in the past, the Lantern Festival entailed up to 10 days of celebration. So, what is this Yuen Siu that was one of the most important Chinese celebrations over 1,000 years ago? And the question that I have often been asked, why is it the Chinese Valentine’s Day? Was there a Saint Valentine’s equivalent in Chinese legends?
There are different stories about how Yuen Siu came into being. The more widely circulated explanation was that 2000 years ago, the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty became a devout Buddhist, and knowing that Buddhist monks had the practice of igniting lights in their temples on the first full moon of the year, the emperor ordered lanterns lit up all over the palace and temples on the 15th of the New Year to show respect to the Buddha. This practice was soon followed by the nobles and government officials, and then spread all over China. Another legend says that the day originally celebrated the victory of the Lao family (the royal family of Emperor Lao) during the Han Dynasty over corrupted officials who were relatives of the Empress Loi. The whole kingdom was to ignite their lanterns and burn fire crackers to celebrate the victory.
Then there is the story about a maid in the emperor’s palace during the Han Dynasty, named Yuen Siu, who tried to commit suicide because she missed her family. So a very clever official of the emperor came up with a plan to help her. He dressed up as a fortune teller in town and gave everyone the same fortune, that the whole town would be burnt to death. The people’s worry reached the emperor who sought the official’s advice. He claimed that the fire god was angry with the town, and to please the god, on the 15th day of the Lunar Year, the emperor should open up the gate of the palace and invite everyone into town to join together to offer dumplings, which was the fire god’s favorite food, igniting lanterns and burning fire crackers to appease the fire god. All that was just a way to get Yuen Siu’s family into the palace so they could meet.
My favorite story of the Yuen Siu Festival was that a villager, while appreciating the full moon on the 15th day of the Lunar Year, saw 17 illuminated fairies dancing in the sky. Though I am quite sure he was drunk, villagers at that time believed that to be good omen. So, when the illuminated fairies didn’t appear the next year, they lit up lanterns in place of the fairies to replicate the good omen.
After a few hundred years, no matter how Yuen Siu Festival started, it became a celebration that lasted for days. Young men would invite ladies they were courting to appreciate the full moon and light lanterns together, and that was how the Lantern Festival became Chinese Valentine’s Day.
While there was a Saint Valentine in the West whose love brought about the celebration of Valentine’s Day on February 14, we have a drunken guy who thought he saw Tinkerbells and thus the Yuen Siu Festival. So, look up to the moon and see if you can see illuminated fairies this Chinese Valentine’s Day. And if you don’t, drink till you do, for it is a good omen! Jenny Lao-Phillips