Celebrating with Lanterns

悬挂灯笼的喜庆气氛

The Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China. The way of making lanterns differs according to the natural environment. Lanterns are different in the north and the south. In Northern Shaanxi Province,women in the countryside use sorghum¹ stalks to make lantern frames，then they paste red paper on the frames. In this way,they make all sorts of lanterns, such as pumpkin² lanterns, persimmon lanterns and sheep lanterns. They also cut potatoes into a bowl shape. Then they put oil into the bowl-shaped potatoes and place lampwick in them and cover the potatoes with red paper lampshades. People hang red lanterns over the gates of their cave dwellings³. Willow⁴ trees are also decorated with coloured paper. Red lanterns are hung here and there on willow trees. The trees are called lantern trees or spark trees.

元宵节是中国的一个传统节日。制作灯笼的方式不同由于自然环境的不同。灯笼在北方和南方是不同的。在陕北，农村妇女用高粱秆做灯笼帧，然后在框架上贴上红纸。通过这种方式，他们制作各种各样的灯笼，如南瓜灯笼，柿子灯笼，羊灯笼。他们还把土豆切成碗状。然后把油倒入碗状的土豆，并把灯芯放在里面，盖上红纸灯罩。人们在他们的窑洞的门口挂红灯笼。杨柳树也用彩色纸装饰着。红灯笼挂满柳枝。这些树被称为灯笼树或火花树。