The Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival

元宵節

本篇適合：拓展知識面

春節剛過完不久我們就迎來了元宵節。在古代，元宵節是一個非常熱鬧的節日，街上會掛起各式各樣的花燈。元宵節也是一個家人團聚的節日，大家一起吃元宵、賞花燈、猜燈謎，多有趣呀！接下來我們來了解一下元宵節的一些慶祝傳統吧！

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（懸掛）lanterns to celebrate the festival. It can be exciting to go out and guess（猜測）the lantern riddles（謎語）, 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（棗）and other things like pork（豬肉）and beef. Whatever you like can be filled（填充）in it. Chinese people like to eat Yuanxiao because of its good meaning—reunion（團聚）.

Walking on Stilts（高蹺）

Walking on stilts is a popular folk（民間的）art in China. It appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period（春秋時期）. 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（騰躍）, kicking（蹬腿）and rolling（翻滾）. This custom originated in the Three Kingdoms Period（三國時期）.

判斷對錯。正確的填T，錯誤的填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.

中文大意及答案請見第47頁。