The Origin of the Lantern Festival 元宵節 | Off the Great Wall

The Lantern Festival aka 元宵節, the final day of the Chinese New Year celebration, has a history spanning thousands of years. On this day Chinese families around the world eat Tangyuan as a symbol of togetherness and harmony. Tangyuan has been synonymous with the Lantern festival for as long as history! But has it? Actually, the original celebration had nothing to do with Tang Yuan at all! 😳 In this video, I’m going to go through some fascinating culture behind the origin of the last day of Chinese New Year. (And I’m going to show you some photos and videos from my trip to Taiwan’s Lantern Festival 😬)
Kind of Cooking Tang Yuan hack: bit.ly/KOCTangyuan
Carmen’s IG: @harrocarmen
The Origin of the Lantern Festival 元宵節 | Off the Great Wall
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[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Happy New Year! (hehe it's not over yet) Let us know if you have any ideas on what we should cover on the channel. In the meantime: 💥 Check out my food channel 👉 kzbin.info​ 💥 Stalk me on instagram 👉 instagram.com/harrocarmen

[@air_owl-warlock7812]

15 DAYS!!!! I almost forgot! So it’s Start actual day till the second Friday. Right? Fed 12 - Fed 27? I love 💕 lunar new year 🧧.

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

This Friday is Lantern Festival :)

[@air_owl-warlock7812]

@@NTDOffTheGreatWall amazing 🤩.

[@justachick9793]

I feel like crying, I'm so happy this channel is back! And already teaching me something new. Thank you so much!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

🥺🥺🥺

[@jonathancruz562]

I’m crying right now I’m so happy the channel is back

[@boscowong06]

oh yes! lantern festival is on friday! yay cant wait to eat tong yuan!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

But it’s not really about tang yuan 🤭

[@osas5211]

Wow Hans were soo transcendent, love the mythology back story

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Yes! It’s so interesting!

[@turanatomeko]

Happy this channel is back

[@evelinecarolinelienhuaming1184]

💖💗💟💕💕💞💞 Happy Chinese New Year, Xinnian Kuaile, Zhu ni Jiankang Changshou, Zhu ni Hao Yun 🎈🎆🎇🎉🎊🎈祝福的话语，书中有无限. 心中的思念，一遍又一遍,新年来眼前，送去我祝愿：快乐开心每一天，生活美满又团圆，平安吉祥福运连! 🙌🙌🙌

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Awwwww such thoughtful words!! Thank you!!!

[@Dingomush]

Great to see that your back! We missed you guys!

[@kalinsapotato]

Wow, based on the comments I can see it's very hard to please everybody! I personally think it was a great video. Good work, Carmen!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Hahaha yes. Thanks for your understanding. Please be kind, just starting again with a full time job too. I’m starting with topics I know best. It’s difficult to do funny videos or skits when you’re alone. But rest assure I am thinking about it. However if I was to publish weekly I won’t be doing skits every week. In terms of Cantonese pronunciation sure i can add them in the future. 😊

[@insertgoodname4809]

I miss the double Chen show.

[@DaliahSilva]

So glad this channel is back! Thank you for this vid. So beautiful knowing about the beautiful lanterns and yummy food.

[@mooncake5016]

Thank you. Good stuff. Off the Great Wall is back on YT. Good stuff is back on YT,

[@WingChunBoyz]

Thanks Carmen for making the video! Really appreciate it. 🙏😀

[@MrJojo442]

Thank you for the wonderful history lesson!

[@Davidchendavid]

More content like this please, very educational and perfect for k-12 and today’s “at home learning”

[@meisumarmy7846]

I love you so so so so much my all cutie Chinese brothers and sisters. Lots of love and respect from Pakistan 🇵🇰. I know I am so much late to wish Happy new Chinese year. But I hope that I come China soon to meet with you all and to celebrate Chinese New year in between with you all. God blessed you all. Lots of love and respect from Pakistan 🇵🇰

[@Gran_Central]

Thank you for being so informative. I’ve always wanted to know more about this festival.

[@user-jw7mq7ny1i]

元宵快樂🏮發現了一個優秀的頻道，太喜歡啦，謝謝你讓我知道了這麼多有意思的知識，期待下次的更新❤️

[@nyanya4566]

I miss the cantonese pronunciation :( There is so many mandarin video out there already, so could you take the extra second to pronounce it in canto too? Another suggestion would be a full video in cantonese, since I know a lot of asian americans have cantonese background but don't speak the language that fluently/don't know our background in our mother tongue. Other than that, I'm super happy that you're back and informing us about asian heritage! Ty carmen

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Thanks for your suggestion. I skipped Cantonese pronunciation this time because to be honest.. English, Mandarin, and Cantonese together is such a tongue twister! 🤪 But I see your feedbacks and will include it in the future. 😊

[@neofils]

Cantonese is btw not the only Chinese languages besides Mandarin.

[@HankTsui]

So happy to see content from this channel again after all these years and such wonderful videos to restart things off! Definitely something I'll be sharing with my kids .. and this time around, they're old enough to understand the content =P Happy New Year!

[@li-lingcheng854]

Welcome back! I look forward to more amazing programs like this.. 新年快乐！

[@tamanthamckinley3504]

Yay another great video this is so awesome

[@venomsmoke585]

She’s back on Chinese New Year on the last day in Vietnam Lunar New Year 🧧 is great and we call it Tet [Gosh Dang!!!!]

[@cindyy3707]

i'm so happy this channel is back!!

[@dominichill1492]

I learned something from you today. Also you look so wonderful in red Carmen.

[@emilyzhao1686]

Happy lantern festival!🏮🏮🏮 I am soooooooo happy for you come back, this must be the best channel for introducing Chinese culture to the world in my opinion. Thank you so much!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

🎉Thank you! Happy Lantern Festival to you too!

[@maggiegilbride8680]

新年好！So glad that this channel is back, I use it often in my high school Chinese language class and love the combination of humor and culture along with language. Since the channel is getting back up and running, I have two suggestions to consider: the first is to add tones to the pinyin when it is written. The second is about the lantern riddle joke midway through - my students felt uncomfortable when that line came out, since it re-enforces stereotypes about Asians and Asian-Americans. I understand that the intent wasn't bad, but wanted to share the impact for consideration when making future videos. 祝你们虎年大吉！

[@darlenezamora1277]

Happy Chinese New Year ! ! ! 🙏

[@artkung3629]

you guys are great! i love these sort of videos because i know so very little of my Chinese culture. ashamedly, i’m an old Canadian born Chinese who can’t speak the language and know very little of the reasons or origins of why we do things in our culture. i’m well over 50years old and you’ve taught me things i’ve never known before or understood. and due to my lack of vocabulary in my parents’ language, i could never communicate with them beyond simply nodding when they would try to teach me. they could have spoken French and i would have had equal “understanding”. thanks for this video. keep doing these sort of videos to keep the traditions understood and passed on to the future generations as my kids will even be further removed from our heritage than i am.

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. You're giving me more motivation to work on these videos. Happy Lantern Festival!

[@karenlin5731]

Thank you so much for making such quality videos and I do use your videos for my class and truly appreciate your effort. 😊😊😊

[@tikitoons9964]

Thanks for teaching me about Chinese New Year!

[@Fredjo]

OMG Yessss you guys are back!!✌🏻 You introduced me and made me interested in Chinese culture and politics back in the good ol" days and it makes me super happy you decided to phoenix this channel back to life ❤️

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

The Phoenix has risen 🔥

[@user-kx5xc8nd4b]

We like all Chinese festivals,I had so many great memories with my family in my childhood in China.people gather together to celebrate

[@liwu3456]

a good lecture about the lantern Festival, definitely like

[@victoriaparsons3684]

I'm so happy this is back and active

[@zJiaQiz]

So glad you guys are back! Love your top!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

You can’t tell but it’s a dress ☺️

[@Marsipan_art]

Ooo thanks a lot this was so interesting ❤️😍 I love to watch these types of videos 💖

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Great! Let me know what else you would like to see

[@Marsipan_art]

@@NTDOffTheGreatWall I honesly know so little but enjoy anything cultural/traditional so I'm not sure haha ^^

[@Marsipan_art]

@@NTDOffTheGreatWall Actually uhm is it too late to ask for a video about how Cultivation, Ascension and all the practices and creatures in between (like ghosts, jiangshi, lore in general) came to be? °° like the history of how it all came to be in chinese culture? ^^ I love these types of things and I'd love to know more!

[@julieincornwall8786]

I love the presentation and contents...suggestion you ask for....maybe include some astrology behind the origin (as Knobbylaad says). I have seen the Astronomy Bureau feature in some Chinese Legend Series

[@SandraSoll]

Awesome 👏🏾

[@wendywywrot7600]

This is so interesting ! Wishing you a very prosperous, lucky, fun, and healthy New Year !

[@NETSEDU8]

Wow! Thanks for letting me know about the weather predicting trick! Can't wait to see if my predictions hold true :)

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

So what was the weather on mid autumn? Haha

[@duncanmit5307]

💜💜💜👍👍👍👍👍great video ...so glad I learn more about Chinese culture👍👍👍👍 every day is a school day

[@Kpophdvidfan]

Great info!

[@KLKL268]

Awesome to see OTGW back in action!

[@RickJ666ESQ]

I remember way back my mom would make tong yuan with a small piece of yellow lump sugar inside. Cooked in a pot of sweet syrup water it would melt the sugar. Yum. I missed that and my mom so much. My Mom and relatives would also make a savory version but i didn't like that much.

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Interesting!! There are so many diff versions. My favourite is black sesame but tomorrow I’m gonna try making a lava yolk version. Wish me luck!

[@RickJ666ESQ]

​@@NTDOffTheGreatWall Good luck. :D

[@anais4506]

Welcome back you guys~

[@carrolltee5906]

Yass awesome partty

[@ferasdiab1980]

Your back!

[@426mak]

British Subscriber here. Welcome back and good luck.

[@jasonpursley3206]

Thank you for resurrecting OTGW. I'll be thinking about ideas for future video requests. I'll post on FB page, perhaps more likely to be seen🤔 Awesome video!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

I see you 👀

[@sophieji413]

very informative a great video to teach american born Chinese kids their cultural festivals and celebration.

[@lcc726]

WB Carmen and OTGW!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Thank you!

[@esclou]

Informative...thanks.m

[@unoki99]

OMG WHAT YOURE BACK

[@witch798]

I first saw this and thought I was hallucinating from the ginseng tea.. I thought no way can OTGW can actually really come back after so many centuries of dormancy... Then the Mighty Carmen arose from the mountain like a fire-ish serpent and breathed out fire in the shape of Hanzi letters.. Glad to see this triumphant return !!! May peace and God's blessing be upon you!!

[@Jobe-13]

Wow, a New Year’s religious holiday tradition with set customs and specific calendar dates that has been a thing for thousands of years. That’s what I call a VERY grounded culture. For some reason I never really imagined China having “gods” like how we think of it. Whenever I thought of Chinese religion, I always just thought of Buddhist and Taoist philosophical ideas, ancestral worship, and Confucian ideas.

[@newaznazimuddin7090]

Hope one day I go to mainland China and celebrate this festival. It will bring about more hope and joy.

[@osborne6363]

So interesting

[@josephlownang6992]

happy new year

[@lilypudd]

Thank you.

[@terrarepokemon]

great video! are you not going to say the characters/phrases in cantonese moving forward?

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Thanks for your suggestion. I didn’t do it this time because saying it in English, Mandarin and Cantonese is such a tongue twister sometimes and some phrases in this video are based on Mandarin sayings. But I see that people really want Cantonese content so I will include it in the future.

[@user-kv6uo5kz2o]

You're really reprising the role

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

I don’t kid 😅

[@charlieer9221]

Nice video

[@xarchanx]

Carmen!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@BobTheHatKing]

3:33 self-rotating lamp=走馬燈

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

That’s it!

[@BobTheHatKing]

@@NTDOffTheGreatWall the reason I know is bc there’s a song (a Taiwanese oldie) called that, and for the longest time I had no idea what it was lol

[@BobTheHatKing]

@@NTDOffTheGreatWall happy new year and happy 元宵 btw! Glad to have you back! You were one of my favorites on the channel back in the day!

[@ronb.8920]

Nice vid. Xin nian kuaile!✌

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

謝謝

[@josephprince6217]

I really miss this channel. The hosts are seriously classy cute.

[@josephlownang6992]

good video

[@MYTHOMINHTRAN]

中秋快樂！ Zhōngqiū kuàilè!🪔🍍

[@djoakeydoakey1076]

Hey nice video. An idea is to cover veganism in ancient China. Saitan and tofu are like meat substitutes, just a thought. Thanks

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Haha interesting. Noted.

[@Davidchendavid]

Yesss thank you for pinyin

[@BobTheHatKing]

Can you do a video on name taboos? I was looking my 族譜 (whatever it’s called in English, lol) and I saw「諱」and I asked my mom about it and googled it and I kinda get it but not really

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Will look into it!

[@jennyc0806]

Do you have one about the moon festival?有吗？

[@pao-ulul7475]

Now the xiao lantern really makes sense now

[@lmlmlm9281]

Thanks for sharing! But some of the information in the video are not correct. For example, the people in the North China eat YuanXiao and the Chinese in the South part of China eat Tangyuan, the making between YuanXiao and Tangyuan is different. There are also different sayings for the origin of Yuanxiao Festival (Lantern Festival), which you only mentioned one. The Chinese character you presented is the traditional version that is only applied in Taiwai and HongKong, in fact, most of people in China use the simplified Chinese, for example: 元宵节. Happy Lantern Festival!

[@adamview2216]

Good,

[@adamview2216]

Hi everyone my name Lee My animal is the dragon and by the way I enjoyed reading this great!!!

[@kochichris]

There where also tiny lantern-boats for love-ones....and also wish-lanterns for hope~☆ _water dragon

[@knobbylaad]

i have read that the festival of lanterns is associated with the Pleiades star cluster. them being connected to cycles of time and creation as well. do you know anything about this connection ? many thanks

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Interesting. Will look into it!

[@knobbylaad]

@@NTDOffTheGreatWall thank you

[@nctrenlelove9518]

I like your Channel

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

I like you 😬

[@nctrenlelove9518]

I don't have crush on you

[@sajarforonda8710]

I mean his birthday is on feb 24

[@user-rx3be1qx7h]

😢😢😢😢❤❤❤❤

[@meow4721]

Can off the great wall make girls vs boys video

[@misterhill5598]

Is Mike Chen still part of this channel?

[@grytshrt]

was naming the Ming dynasty the "next" dynasty after Song on purpose? I mean, I know that the Yuan were "foreigners", but so were the Qing? just curious as to whether there is a reasoning behind excluding the "Yuan"? Thank you for an informative video!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Don't read too much into it, just picked out what was most interesting to keep in the video. Thanks for watching!

[@grytshrt]

@@NTDOffTheGreatWall thanks for the reply! Keep up the excellent videos!

[@JesselpD]

Glass yes glass yes

[@Doping1234]

Funny how the Mongol dynasty was skiped. Given that Kublai Khans' strategy was to 'out-chinese' the Song I would image there was quite extensive celebration. With the later emporers probably not so much though.

[@pabloramonl.torres8507]

Hi

[@abd-animation-22]

Now i wonder if there is a lantern that has the shape of a dragon

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Yes!! Go to my ig. I just posted a MASSIVE dragon lantern @harrocarmen

[@andreijohannsiacastro3953]

2024

[@mjmjismatthew]

Yooo

[@queefonater]

Add the tones to the words please :)

[@dr.gaosclassroom]

This is a great video. It is very informative about the history of the lantern festival. I love it!! I am making two videos on poetry about the lantern festival. I just uploaded one to be released next Tuesday and another one on the 15th of lunar Jan. Please check them out. It would be great to view your video and mine together!!

[@Schroeder9999]

Hey! 天后宫 at 1:43

[@Schroeder9999]

3:03 too... haha

[@jasonreviews]

translate LMF lyrics. :)

[@vinnysing1324]

What has got to do with lantern and tangyuan, not every ethnic share the same, having tangyuan; sticky rice balls. I am a Chinese too, I don't eat rice-balls on 15th day of Chinese New Year.My lantern festival is mid autumn festival.

[@Weeping-Angel]

That’s a different celebration but Americans also call it lantern festival because people light lanterns also, so you’re actually talking about another festival

[@Zhishan929]

That’s called the mid autumn moon festival 中秋节, you also have lanterns on 中秋节。Another word for tang yuan is 元宵 yuan Xiao, and yuan Xiao jie 元宵节 is on the fifteenth day after Chinese New Years. Of course, there are people who don’t celebrate yuan Xiao jie, and other ethnic groups are all unique. This is speaking to the majority.

[@saxmaniac6321]

愿灯笼为您带来好运和繁荣 🏮

[@eliteevildarkness5830]

Mike 😭

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Don’t cry. He is on Strictly Dumplings and upload very often ☺️

[@vaporeon333xxx]

Have they addressed the genocide thats currently going on in China?

[@JesselpD]

I wanna see you

[@ricg3010]

what happened to the humour?!

[@NTDOffTheGreatWall]

Planning to make some "fun" videos soon!

[@ricg3010]

@@NTDOffTheGreatWall cheers!! just a small opinion in the sea of crowd, you should put a bit more 'fun' in this type of video too, make it sound less like a lecture ;) Hope you guys keep getting better!!! Indo Tionghoa represent!