Do you love seeing beautiful lanterns outside?The best time to do this is during the Lantern Festival,which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
Watching lanterns is a great event. You can see lanterns in different sizes and shapes,from animals to plants. To make this activity more fun,people stick riddles(谜语) on the lanterns.
In some places,people like flying sky lanterns,which are called Kongming lanterns. When the bright lights fly high in the sky,people bless(祝福) family members and make wishes. Releasing river lights is also a way to bless others.
In old times,the Lantern Festival was also romantic. At that time,young girls were not allowed to go out very often except during certain festivals. Therefore,watching lanterns gave young people a chance to meet each other. A line from Xin Qiji,a poet during the Song Dynasty shows this, "I searched for her in thousands,hundreds of ways. Suddenly I turned,and there she was in the receding light. "