February 15th marks the Lantern Festival, a festival held each year on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar calendar. The Lantern Festival closes out Chinese New Year Celebrations, and honors the first full moon in the new lunisolar calendar.
While there are many different origin stories for this festival, one famous legend is that The Jade Emperor became angered with the people of a small village for killing his favorite bird, and planned to burn down their village in revenge. His daughter took pity on the villagers, and warned them of The Jade Emperor’s plans. To trick The Jade Emperor into thinking the village was already on fire and save their village, the villagers lit and carried red lanterns and lit firecrackers. To commemorate this legend, people celebrate by decorating with red lanterns, participating in lantern processions, and lighting firecrackers and fireworks, among many other things.
Due to the recent COVID-19 Omicron spike, our annual lantern procession and celebration has been postponed to May when we will reconvene for an AAPI Heritage Month Celebration in Maggie Daley Park on Saturday, May 14th.
We wish you a very happy Lantern Festival, and look forward to celebrating together in May. A special thank you to all our supporters, including artists, volunteers, supporters, partners, and audience for their ongoing support. We look forward to celebrating together soon!
