Today is the Festival of Lanterns (15th day of the first lunar month). The fifteenth day of the first month marks the end of the period of New Year's celebrations. The moon enters its first lunation since the spring festival (the night of the coming of the New Year). This year's full moon is said to be the fullest in 52 years and it will be the roundest and brightest at 10.40pm Singapore time. The Chinese celebrate this night of the full moon by hanging out multicolored lanterns at dusk.
On the day of the festival of lanterns it is usual to eat yuan xiao. These are sticky rice balls filled with lard, sugar, nuts, sesame seeds and cinnamon tree flowers. Once again there are a multitude of yuan xiao.
During the early years of the republic, yuan xiao were known as "tang yuan" (reunion soup) because Yuan Shikai (1859-1916), the founder of the republican regime in China, refused to be associated with the name of a candy. Even more serious was the fact that xiao is also a homophone for "make disappear." Thus yuan xiao meant "eliminate Mr. Yuan"!
We didn't eat yuan xiao, instead we had roasted teriyaki chicken legs with mashed potatoes and fried long beans. We also didn't hang any lanterns, but we tried flying a kite and failed miserably while other kites flew high in the skies. We had a great day, though, the boys cycled many rounds in the park and Johann finally cycled independently on his tricycle after 2 days of training!
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