The Lantern Festival fell this year on the 21^st February. This thousand year old tradition marks the end of the Chinese New Year vacation. In Beijing, the Flowers of the World Garden is still the best place to enjoy the event.

The Lantern Festival or Yuanxiaojie marks the end of Chunjie. Celebrated on the 15th day of the first lunar month, this year, February 21^st, two weeks after the start of the Chinese New Year. Chinese families like to take advantage of this occasion by shooting their remaining stocks of firecrackers and fireworks, before they are banned for another year. They also take advantage of the occasion to eat small filled rice flour balls (tangyuan). But most especially, to admire the lanterns, which come in all shapes and sizes. In Beijing, the Flowers of the World Garden remains one of the best places to enjoy this event.

Right in the Fengtai District, the southern part of Beijing, the Garden showcases for the second time an exhibition of flowers and lanterns throughout Chinese New Year. The entrance, with its white arches, is strangely reminiscent of the architecture of the Sydney Opera House. The main avenue is topped with a lit pergola and sprinkled with stars inlaid with flashing flowers. In the sky, the festive red moon is entering the new year in full form.

In the distance, you can hear fireworks grumbling and covered by the playful looping Chinese songs coming from the loudspeakers. Everyone is out for the show. Babies who can barely stand fixate their big eyes on the bouquets of flowers made of illuminated fabric. Adolescent girls giggle at the sight of their sweet little faces on the screen of their camera. Senior citizens are walking around with a certain indolence, massaging the palms of their hands with nuts. Parents try to guess what figures the lanterns are representing. "Is it a mushroom? "asks aloud a forty year old man. 

A sweet note

In the middle of the Garden, the stand of the Rat, this year's animal, reigns over his subjects: bushes decorated with tinsel and carved in the shape of dinosaurs and other mammals, conifers and hedges, the parched lawn and the beginnings of rosebushes. Winter is still here, and this is what the glass lamps, garlands and silk or paper lanterns seem to want to brighten with their colors. On one side, a peach orchard, covering 90 square metres, their fruits symbolizing longevity, attracts onlookers amused by the reproduction of monkeys in the branches.

The one regret is the lack of artistic performances. "You can only see performances in the countryside. In Beijing, the Lantern Festival is not considered a holiday, it's a day like any other when we work, "says this young city dweller. In this area, a little too kitsch, an enchanting tea house surrounded by glass stands out. This warm haven is filled with green plants and natural flowers and punctuated by a large pool around which are arranged rattan tables and chairs.

The stands are lined up one after the other: tulips, clogs and windmill from the Netherlands, fruits and vegetables, fish and other topics, without forgetting the Beijing Olympic Games mascots performing all of the sports. A little further, a stand offers tangyuan or yuanxiao. These dumpling can be boiled and are filled with black beans, sesame, or meat and vegetables. Served warm in their cooking juices, they remain an indispensable dish of the Lantern Festival. This is one way to end the chunjie vacation on a sweet note.

Flowers of the World Garden (北京世界花卉大观园): Open daily from 8 AM to 5:3 0PM (for the tickets) and up to 6PM. Admission: 80RMB, 40RMB for children. 235 Nan Sihuan Zhong Lu, Fengtai district.丰台区南四环中路235号. Tel: 010-6373-9588

Text: Aurélie Palancher
Photos: Wang Zhuo
February 2008