The Spring Festival has met its end, while another Chinese festival, the Lantern Festival, comes as appointed. The first full moon will appear on the first day of Chinese first lunar month. People will hold colorful activities for the first full moon, and call the day “the Lantern Festival”. The Lantern Festival is also named “Yuan Xiao Jie” or “Shang Yuan Jie” in Chinese, and it is the first traditional Chinese holiday after the Spring Festival.
隨著春節(jié)臨近尾聲，元宵節(jié)又進入了我們的視野。中國農歷正月十五的晚上是一年第一個月圓之夜，人們?yōu)榇硕e行各種活動慶祝這第一個滿月，并把這天稱為“元宵節(jié)”。元宵節(jié)又稱為“上元節(jié)”，這是春節(jié)過后，中國人迎來的第一個傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日。

The holiday has a long history in China. 2000 years ago, an Emperor of Han Dynasty ruled the first day of the first lunar month as a festival, called “Yuan Xia Jie”. In the period of Wu Emperor of Han Dynasty, a grand ceremony for the Taiyi-God (who is a god to dominate the universe in China) started to be held on the day, which made the influence of the festival far-reaching. Then, in Eastern Han Dynasty, Ming Emperor of the dynasty loved to promote Buddhism, and he heard that Buddhists had a special tradition on the first day of the first lunar month, to pay homage to Buddhist relics and light lanterns for Buddha respecting. Therefore, he ordered to make all the lamps of palaces and temples on through the night, and his people must light lamps on the night. As a result, the custom came to spread to the whole country; lantern lighting became to be the tradition of the Lantern Festival.
在中國，元宵節(jié)的歷史十分悠久，早在2000多年前的兩漢時期，皇帝就下令，將每年第一個月圓日——正月十五，定名為“元宵節(jié)”。漢武帝時，盛大的“太一神”祭奠活動也被定在了正月十五，從而使“元宵節(jié)”的影響更加深遠。在東漢，漢明帝提倡佛教，聽說佛教有正月十五日僧人觀佛舍利，點燈敬佛的做法，就命令這一天夜晚在皇宮和寺廟里點燈敬佛，令士族庶民都掛燈。以后這種佛教禮儀逐漸在民間流傳，燃燈也便成為元宵節(jié)的習俗。

Yuan Xiao Jie has developed from Chinese royal court to the folk, and it appeared in central plains area and spread in the whole China in the long history. It is a festival celebrated by the whole Chinese nations. The full moon of the night may indicate the end of the previous Spring Festival, while the clear moonlight also lightens the hope of all the Chinese for the whole year.
元宵節(jié)在中國漫長的歷史長河中經歷了由宮廷到民間、由中原地區(qū)到全國各地的發(fā)展過程，是中國人舉國慶祝的傳統(tǒng)節(jié)日。當晚的滿月給春節(jié)畫上了圓滿的句號，皎潔的月光也照亮了人們一年的希望。