The Lantern Festival

some of the excellent food provided by the Bootham kitchen team.

On the 15th day of the new Chinese lunar year (which will be the night of the first full Moon), the two weeks of Chinese New Year come to an end with the lantern festival. There are several competing stories to explain the origins of the festival - the one I like best involves fooling the Jade Emperor, who intended to destroy a village because they ate his favourite goose. A kind fairy gave the villagers advanced warning that the fire-god was going to bring fire down from heaven onto their little settlement, so they lit lanterns, fire-crackers and bonfires to persuade the god that the village was already on fire anyway.

We invited the boarders of the Mount School to join us on our first ever celebration of this event, and had an excellent supper together, followed by a short meeting in the school hall. At the meeting Jacky Lam schooled us in how to wish each other happiness, prosperity and longevity in Cantonese, so that we could all shake hands with a traditional Cantonese wish for each other. After this, we set off a few flying lanterns (eco-friendly, with mostly bamboo hard parts), and watched them float dreamily past a rising full Moon.

photos provided by Kevin Lo

Many thanks to everyone who gave so freely of their time to make this event successful, but particularly Graham Atkin, Suzi, Fran, Lynne, Sarah and Kirit for their unflagging support and creative elan. Watch this blog for video and more photos tomorrow!!