An old Nanjing Saying goes that: "Without enjoying lanterns in the Confucius Temple, you haven't spent the Nian (the Lunar New Year); without having a lantern of the Confucius Temple, you haven't had a good Nian." Nanjing has a folk traditional custom since the ancient time that people join in the Lantern Festival of the Confucius Temple. Another tradition is that lanterns are lighted on the 13th and put out on the 18th of the first month in Lunar New Year. It is said that this year's lantern festival will be the most spectacular in history.
Held two weeks after the Lunar New Year, the Lantern Festival is one of the liveliest Chinese festivals and an especially entertaining one for foreign visitors. Nanjing hosts one of all China's most lavish and popular lantern displays. There are many legends behind the lantern festival - some claim it celebrates the success of a palace coup in the Han Dynasty, while others maintain it began when an emperor recovered from a serious illness. But what the Lantern Festival really means is a chance to stroll with your friends through streets set ablaze with countless bright red lanterns.
While many ordinary citizens hang lanterns in their homes, the Confucius Temple is the most lively place to see the festival. Already a great place to stroll and window shop, streets and lampposts, storefronts and peddlers' stalls are all festooned with countless red lanterns. The Qinhuai river runs through the area, and its dark waters twinkle with the reflections of the lanterns above. The epicenter of the lantern mania is the old Confucian Temple at the heart of the district. Inside, the ancient inscriptions and statues are overshadowed by elaborate and complex lantern sculptures.
Teams of artists create dozens of huge lanterns by crafting wooden frameworks and covering them with translucent colored paper. Often standing over two meters tall, they depict legendary creatures, the animals of the Chinese zodiac, famous buildings, and sometimes even world events - an enormous lantern was built to celebrate China's entry into the WTO! One the streets outside throngs of locals window-shop and chat, their handheld lanterns bobbing like bright buoys on the waves of the crowd.
