{"id":32823,"date":"2026-03-02T09:10:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=32823"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:10:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:10:37","slug":"what-is-the-lantern-festival-plus-6-ways-to-celebrate-it-in-hong-kong-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=32823","title":{"rendered":"What is the Lantern Festival? Plus 6 ways to celebrate it in Hong Kong in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first month in the lunisolar calendar, which is on March 3 this year, and marks the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. It is the first night of the new year to see a full moon, thus symbolising the return of spring and family unity.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The festival\u2019s roots stretch back more than 2,000 years to the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220), though there are various versions of its exact origins.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">One links the festival to Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han dynasty, a devout Buddhist who adopted the traditional practice of lighting lanterns in temples to honour Buddha. In <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Taoism<\/span>, the celebration is known as the Shangyuan Festival, and it is believed that the \u201cHeavenly Official\u201d \u2013 the official in charge of good fortune \u2013 was born on the 15th day of the first lunar month.<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A child takes part in a lantern riddle game during an event celebrating the Lantern Festival in Changchun, in China\u2019s Jilin province. Photo: Xinhua\/Zhang Nan\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/02\/27\/c7c741f2-ef54-452f-b09f-d36ce0469ed6_2f9a9a57.jpg\" title=\"A child takes part in a lantern riddle game during an event celebrating the Lantern Festival in Changchun, in China\u2019s Jilin province. Photo: Xinhua\/Zhang Nan\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1ixmelf e1gf69pb1\">A child takes part in a lantern riddle game during an event celebrating the Lantern Festival in Changchun, in China\u2019s Jilin province. Photo: Xinhua\/Zhang Nan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The most famous folktale tells of the Jade Emperor, the ruler of Heaven, becoming enraged after his favourite crane was accidentally killed by villagers. Seeking revenge, the deity supreme planned to destroy the village with fire on the 15th day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/chinese-zodiac\/article\/3344671\/what-lantern-festival-plus-6-ways-celebrate-it-hong-kong-2026?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first month in the lunisolar calendar, which is on March 3 this year, and marks&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1732,1901,3569,5231,16983,2470],"class_list":["post-32823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-celebrate","tag-festival","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-lantern","tag-ways","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}