【往期回顾】

世界各国的新年传统14：新年里这15种东西不能用来送礼，你送过几种？

【本期内容】

China’s Lantern Festival: A Guide to China's Age-Old Celebration

中国元宵节

Written by Anne Meredith

（原文地址：https://studycli.org/chinese-holidays/lantern-festival/）

Translated and edited by Spark Liao

The Lantern Festival (元宵节 or Yuánxiāojié in pinyin) is a Chinese holiday that traditionally marks the end of the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) celebrations. Chinese people celebrate this holiday by enjoying colored lantern displays and eating sweet rice balls called tangyuan.

元宵节是一个中国节日，传统上标志着中国新年（春节）庆祝活动的结束。中国人庆祝这个节日的方式是欣赏彩灯表演和吃汤圆。

1. The origins and history of the Lantern Festival

元宵节的起源和历史

Today, the Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, which generally falls sometime in February or early March. Like many traditional Chinese holidays, the Lantern Festival has a long history.

今天，元宵节在中国农历正月十五庆祝，通常在二月或三月上旬。和许多中国传统节日一样，元宵节有着悠久的历史。

Lantern Festival celebrations began around 2,000 years ago during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE). The holiday's exact origins are somewhat unclear. Several different origin stories are used to explain where the festival came from. We’ve outlined two of the most important ones below.

元宵节庆祝活动大约始于2000年前的汉代（公元前202年至公元220年）。这个节日的确切起源有些不清楚。几个不同的起源故事被用来解释这个节日从何而来，我们在下面概述了其中两个最重要的来源故事。

Origin story one: A Buddhist celebration

起源故事一：佛教庆典

One story about the origins of the Lantern Festival says the holiday was created during the time of Emperor Ming of Han (58-75 CE). At this time, Buddhism was already gaining popularity in China.

一个关于元宵节起源的故事说，这个节日是在汉明帝（公元58-75年）时期创建的。此时，佛教在中国已经越来越受欢迎。

Emperor Ming was a supporter of Buddhism and after he learned that it was customary for Buddhist monks to light lanterns on the 15th day of the first lunar month, he decreed that imperial palaces and individual households should do the same. This practice lives on as today’s Lantern Festival.

明帝是佛教的支持者，在他得知佛教僧侣在农历正月十五点灯是一种习俗后，他下令皇宫和各个家庭也应该这样做。这种习俗一直延续下来，成了今天的元宵节。

Origin story two: A trick played on the Jade Emperor

起源故事二：对玉皇大帝的恶作剧

Another story used to explain the origins of the Lantern Festival has to do with the Jade Emperor. Supposedly, his favorite crane was killed by some villagers, so he decided to take revenge by burning down their village on the 15th day of the first lunar month. When his daughter heard about her father’s plan, she felt sorry for the hapless villagers and warned them about what was going to happen.

另一个用来解释元宵节起源的故事与玉皇大帝有关。据说，他最喜欢的鹤被一些村民杀死了，所以他决定在农历正月十五烧毁他们的村庄，以此报复。当他的女儿听到父亲的计划时，她为不幸的村民感到难过，并提醒他们将要发生什么。

To save themselves, the villagers decided to trick the Jade Emperor into thinking their village was already on fire. They did this by hanging red lanterns, setting off firecrackers and lighting fires throughout the village. Their plan worked. The Emperor was deceived and the village was saved. Afterwards, residents continued to light firecrackers and hang red lanterns every year to commemorate the event.

为了自救，村民们决定欺骗玉皇大帝，让他以为村庄已经着火了。他们在全村挂红灯笼、放鞭炮和点火。他们的计划奏效了。皇帝上当受骗，村庄得救了。此后，居民们每年继续燃放鞭炮和悬挂红灯笼，以纪念这一事件。

2. The Lantern Festival through the ages

古往今来的元宵节

Whatever its origins, the Lantern Festival soon developed into a popular Chinese holiday. Thanks to Chinese cultural influence on other Asian countries, it didn’t take long for the festival to spread to neighboring nations like Korea and Japan.

不管它的起源是什么，元宵节很快就发展成为一个流行的中国节日。由于中国文化对其他亚洲国家的影响，这个节日很快就传到了韩国和日本等邻国。

The Lantern Festival has been celebrated with various degrees of pomp and circumstance over the years. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), lantern festival celebrations lasted for three days.

多年来，人们以各种程度的盛况庆祝元宵节。在唐朝（公元618-907年），元宵节的庆祝活动会持续三天。

They were extended to five days during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE). In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE), celebrations were particularly lengthy, with some lasting a full 10 days.

在宋朝（公元960年至1279年），这一期限延长至五天。在明朝（1368-1644年），庆祝活动特别漫长，有时长达10天。

3. The real Chinese Valentine’s Day?

真正的中国情人节？

Although it’s no longer the case today, the Chinese Lantern Festival was closely associated with love in ancient China. So much so, in fact, that some say that it’s the real traditional Chinese Valentine’s Day, a designation usually reserved for describing the Qixi Festival.

虽然现在已经不是这样了，但在中国古代，中国的元宵节与爱情密切相关。事实上，有人说这是真正的中国传统情人节，而中国的情人节通常是指七夕节。

In ancient times, there were strict curfews that were meant to keep people inside after dark. Due to traditional gender norms, women were also generally expected to stay indoors at all times, regardless of whether or not there was a curfew in place.

在古代，有严格的宵禁，目的是让人们天黑后留在室内。由于传统的性别规范，无论是否实行宵禁，人们通常都希望妇女始终呆在室内。

During the Lantern Festival, however, curfews were lifted so people could go out at night to view the lanterns. Women were also allowed to leave the house. Thus, the holiday presented a unique opportunity for people of different genders to mingle with each other.

然而，在元宵节期间，宵禁被取消，人们可以在晚上出去看灯笼。妇女也被允许离开房子。因此，这个节日为不同性别的人提供了一个独特的机会，让他们彼此交流。

This romantic facet of the Lantern Festival is reflected in the plot of various Chinese operas, as well as in many works of art and literature from both the Song and Ming Dynasties.

元宵节的浪漫一面反映在中国各种戏曲的情节中，也反映在宋明两代的许多艺术和文学作品中。

4. The Lantern Festival today

如今的元宵节

Today, the Lantern Festival is still popular, but it isn’t one of the seven official public holidays recognized in China. Therefore, people in China don’t usually get any days off from school or work for this holiday.

如今，元宵节仍然很受欢迎，但它不是中国公认的七个官方公共假日之一。因此，中国人通常不会在这个假期里休息。

Lantern Festivals have been popular in various Asian countries for hundreds of years. Recently, Chinese-style Lantern Festival celebrations have also started popping up in Western countries, including the United States, where events like the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival enjoy increasing popularity.

数百年来，元宵节在亚洲各个国家都很流行。最近，中国式的元宵节庆祝活动也开始在西方国家兴起，包括美国，在那里，费城中国元宵节等活动越来越受欢迎。

5. Lantern Festival Activities

元宵节活动

Nowadays, although love is no longer a main theme, the Lantern Festival is still celebrated with a variety of fun activities.

如今，虽然爱情不再是一个主要主题，但元宵节仍然以各种有趣的活动来庆祝。

1) Viewing Lantern displays

赏花灯

As its name suggests, the most important part of the Lantern Festival revolves around viewing and interacting with grand displays of Chinese lanterns (灯笼 or dēnglóng).

顾名思义，元宵节（灯笼节）最重要的部分是观看盛大的中国灯笼，并参与其中的互动环节。

When many people think of Chinese lanterns, they imagine the round, red, basket-ball sized lanterns they may have seen hanging outside Chinese restaurants. While this type of lantern is certainly omnipresent around the time of Chinese New Year, the lanterns involved in Lantern Festival displays are quite different.

当许多人想到中国灯笼时，他们会想象在中国餐馆外悬挂的圆形的、红色的、篮球大小的灯笼。虽然这种类型的灯笼在中国春节期间无处不在，但元宵节的灯笼却大不相同。

The lanterns used in modern Lantern Festival displays are often quite elaborate. Instead of being basketball-sized, these lanterns are often enormous, with some of the larger ones measuring over 65 feet (20 meters) high and 330 (100 meters) long.

现代元宵节的花灯往往非常精致。这些灯笼不是篮球大小，而是巨大的，其中一些更大的灯笼高超过65英尺（20米），长超过330英尺（100米）。

These giant lanterns aren’t usually round or red. Instead, they’re built into every imaginable color and shape, depicting real and imaginary animals like giraffes and dragons along with giant flowers, trees and palaces. Groups of lanterns are often arranged together to illustrate famous scenes from various historical or mythological stories.

这些巨大的灯笼通常不是圆形或红色的。相反，它们被建造成各种可以想象的颜色和形状，描绘了真实和想象的动物，如长颈鹿和龙，以及巨大的花朵、树木和宫殿。一组组灯笼通常排列在一起，以说明各种历史或神话故事中的著名场景。

Lanterns used in lantern displays in the past were made of materials like paper, silk, bamboo, glass or jade and lit with candles from within. Today, the materials used have been updated. Most are now made with fabric stretched over wire frames and lit with thousands of LED lights.

过去用于灯笼展示的灯笼由纸、丝绸、竹子、玻璃或玉石等材料制成，并用蜡烛从内部点燃。今天，使用的材料已经更新。现在大多数都是用织物在金属丝框架上拉伸而成，并用数千盏LED灯照明。

Iconic floating sky lanterns were often incorporated into Lantern Festival celebrations in the past and flying them was once a favorite activity for children and adults alike. Now, however, they’re considered a fire hazard and have been banned in many places both in China and abroad.

在过去，标志性的漂浮天灯经常被纳入元宵节庆祝活动中，放飞天灯曾经是儿童和成人都喜欢的活动。然而，现在，它们被认为是火灾隐患，在中国和国外的许多地方都被禁止。

2) Guessing lantern riddles

猜灯谜

Guessing lantern riddles (猜灯谜 or cāidēngmí) is an activity that dates back at least as far as the Song Dynasty, when scholars wrote riddles on small slips of paper and hung them from lanterns for festival attendees to guess.

猜灯谜是一项至少可以追溯到宋代的活动，当时学者们在小纸条上写下谜语，挂在灯笼上，供节日参与者猜测。

Most of these lantern riddles (灯谜 or dēngmí) were simply created as a form of entertainment. Sometimes, however, imperial advisors used them to make suggestions to the emperor. If the emperor didn’t like a suggestion, the advisors could claim that the riddle had been interpreted incorrectly, thus avoiding his wrath. This was possible because the riddles’ answers were rarely obvious and clear-cut, leaving them open to multiple interpretations.

大多数灯谜只是作为一种娱乐形式而创造的。然而，有时皇帝的顾问会利用这些灯谜向皇帝提出建议。如果皇帝不喜欢这个建议，顾问们可以声称这个谜语被错误地解释了，从而避免他生气。这是可能的，因为谜语的答案很少是明显和明确的，对于谜底可以有多种解释。

Today’s lantern riddles are still open to multiple interpretations and difficult to guess. So difficult, in fact, that they’re referred to as “lantern tigers” (灯虎 or dēnghǔ) and guessing lantern riddles is sometimes referred to as “guessing lantern tigers” (猜灯虎 or cāidēnghǔ, occasionally also written as 打灯虎 or dǎdēnghǔ). Generally, lantern riddles are based on complex forms of wordplay and may be difficult for even advanced students of Chinese to understand.

今天的灯谜仍然有多种解释，很难猜到。事实上，它们太难了，以至于被称为“灯笼老虎”(灯虎），猜灯谜有时被称为“猜灯笼老虎”(猜灯虎，偶尔也写作打灯虎）。一般来说，灯谜是以复杂的文字游戏形式为基础的，即使是高级汉语学生也很难理解。

Most riddles consist of the riddle itself and a hint that tells the guesser what form he or she should expect the answer to take. For example, sometimes the hint might indicate that the answer is a Chinese idiom (成语 or chéngyǔ), the name of a country or that it should consist of only one Chinese character.

大多数谜语都由谜语本身和一个提示组成，告诉猜测者应该预测答案是什么形式。例如，有时提示可能表明答案是个中国成语，或是 个国名，或者它只由一个汉字组成。

3) Eating tangyuan

吃汤圆

Another popular Lantern Festival activity is eating tangyuan (汤圆 or tāngyuán). These balls of glutinous rice flour are generally loaded with sweet fillings made from ingredients like black sesame paste. Although most tangyuan are sweet, savory tangyuan do exist.

另一个受欢迎的元宵节活动是吃汤圆。这些由糯米粉做成的圆球一般都内含由黑芝麻糊等原料制成的甜馅。虽然大多数汤圆都是甜的，但美味的汤圆确实存在。

Most tangyuan are steamed or boiled, but they can also be fried. Usually served floating in a thin hot soup, they’re traditionally white in color.

大多数汤圆是蒸或煮的，但也可以油炸。它们通常漂浮在滚烫的汤里，传统上是白色的。

In recent years, modern versions of tangyuan have also appeared. These come in a mix of bright colors like purple, pink and orange. Creative chefs have updated the fillings, sometimes using less-traditional ingredients like chocolate. Although they were originally only consumed on festive occasions, nowadays frozen tangyuan can be found in supermarkets throughout the year and can be eaten anytime.

近年来，现代版本的汤圆也出现了。它们混合了明亮的颜色，如紫色、粉色和橙色。创意厨师更新了馅料，有时会使用巧克力等不太传统的食材。虽然它们最初只在节日场合食用，但现在冷冻汤圆可以在超市里全年找到，而且可以随时食用。

The pronunciation of the word tangyuan is similar to that of the word tuanyuan (团圆 or tuányuán), which means “reunion” in Chinese. This, along with the fact that tangyuan are round and are served in round bowls, has led them to become a symbol of family togetherness.

“汤圆”一词的发音与“团圆”一词相似，在汉语里表示“（亲人）团圆”。这一点，再加上汤圆是圆的，而且盛在圆碗里，使其成为家庭团聚的象征。

There are some regional variations of this traditional dessert. In southern China, it’s called tangyuan, but in northern China, it’s called yuanxiao (元宵 or yuánxiāo). Though there are some slight differences in how tangyuan and yuanxiao are prepared and stored, the two are quite similar.

这种传统甜点有一些地区差异。在中国南方，它叫汤圆，但在中国北方，它叫元宵。尽管汤圆和元宵的制作和储存方式略有不同，但两者非常相似。

4) Watching dragon and lion dances

观看舞龙舞狮

In some parts of China, dragon and lion dances are also performed during the Lantern Festival.

在中国的一些地区，在元宵节期间还表演舞龙和舞狮。

Lion dance (舞狮 or wǔshī) is a type of folk dance typically performed by two dancers wearing a single lion suit. One performer controls the head and front part of the lion’s body, while the other controls the rear. The performers dance and perform various acrobatic tricks to the beat of drums, gongs and cymbals.

舞狮是一种民间舞蹈，通常由两名身着全身狮子服的舞者表演。一个表演者控制狮子的头部和身体的前部，而另一个表演者则控制狮子的后部。表演者随着鼓声、锣声和钹声跳舞，并表演各种杂技技巧。

Some lion dances are quite complex and may even include martial arts-inspired moves. In traditional Chinese culture, lions are considered to be powerful, auspicious animals, and lion dances are thought to bring good luck and financial prosperity.

有些舞狮非常复杂，甚至可能包括武术动作。在中国传统文化中，狮子被认为是强大的吉祥动物，舞狮被认为能带来好运和财运。

Dragon dances (舞龙 or wǔlóng) are usually performed by a large team of dancers. Instead of getting inside a dragon costume, these performers manipulate a long, flexible model of a dragon using poles attached to its body.

舞龙通常由一大群舞蹈演员表演。这些表演者没有穿上龙的服装，而是用附在龙身上的杆子操纵一个长而灵活的龙模型。

Chinese dragons are thought to be powerful, benevolent creatures. Like lion dances, dragon dances are thought to bring good luck to the communities in which they’re performed.

中国龙被认为是强大、仁慈的动物。与舞狮一样，舞龙被认为会给表演的社区带来好运。

5) Fireworks

烟花

Fireworks (烟火 or yānhuǒ, also called 烟花 or yānhuā) were invented in China, so it should come as no surprise that they’re still an integral part of many Chinese festivals.

烟火或烟花是在中国发明的，因此不足为奇的是，它们仍然是许多中国节日的组成部分。

Firework displays are popular during the Lantern Festival. In fact, it’s quite common to see and hear fireworks almost every day from the start of the Chinese New Year until the Lantern Festival, which marks the official end of the Spring Festival holiday.

烟花表演在元宵节期间很受欢迎。事实上，从中国新年开始到元宵节，几乎每天都能看到和听到烟花爆竹，到了元宵节就标志着春节假期的正式结束。

Individuals are prohibited from setting off fireworks in most big cities, so Lantern Festival fireworks displays in urban areas are usually sponsored by local governments. In rural areas, fireworks and firecrackers (鞭炮 or biānpào) can still be freely bought and set off by individual people, so families may set off their own fireworks on the Lantern Festival just for fun.

大多数大城市禁止个人燃放烟花，因此城市里的元宵节烟花表演通常由地方政府主办。在农村地区，烟花爆竹(鞭炮 ）仍然可以由个人自由购买和燃放，因此家庭可以在元宵节燃放自己的烟花，以供娱乐。

Sometimes, fireworks displays are combined with other aspects of the Lantern Festival, such as dragon dancing, which can make for a truly spectacular performance.

有时，烟花表演与元宵节的其他活动相结合，例如舞龙，使得整个表演极为壮观。