Lantern Festival Special Workshop | Lantern Making & Riddle Games

w/ tea + traditional festival dessert

This Sunday (5.2) is The Lantern Festival (元宵节) in Chinese tradition – a  festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar, during the full moon, celebrating family reunions and socializing. In ancient China, the Lantern Festival was a festival full of romance – women who stay at home on weekdays can go out to enjoy the lanterns on this day, which also provides opportunities for young men and women to meet. It can be seen that the Lantern Festival creates a good opportunity for people to socialize and freely express their feelings. Therefore, it is also the “Valentine’s Day” in ancient China. 

Traditionally during the festival, children go out at night carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns (we call Lantern Riddles). In China, different regions have different customs to celebrate the festival, but going out to watch beautiful lanterns, solving lantern riddles and eating Tangyuan (汤圆) – sweet rice balls (vegan)  –  are the most beloved activities regardless of the region.

In ancient times, people write riddles on the lanterns or write on a paper and stick it on the lantern. The riddles were based on poems, folklore, historical events and even jokes about social issues. Scholars usually write the riddles and the crowd would try to guess the correct answer. They require the riddle-solvers to be clever and think outside the box and  in the end they may even win a small gift. PS: according to many ancient love stories, people can catch the attention of their crush through this game! 😛

This year Nari has prepared 6 small modern Lantern kits for you to make and take home for The Lantern Festival this Sunday. We also have prepared Lantern Riddles game that we will play with a little surprise prize from us. Throughout the workshop, we will be serving delicious Chinese tea with traditional festival dessert – Tangyuan! We will have 6 additional seats for those who want to join in on the festivities but without the Lantern making component.

Date: 5.2.2023 Sunday

Time: 3:30 – 5:30 PM

Price: 25€ / person

Max: 6 persons

(incl. a modern simple lantern making kit, riddle games entrance, unlimited tea & traditional festival dessert Tangyuan brewed and cooked by Yiling)

There are 6 seats available for the Lantern Making workshop,  please register and get your spot in advance.

If you only want to join the Lantern Riddles Game with tea and Tangyuan, it will be 12€ per person, maximum 6 persons.