The Lantern Festival (Yuanxiaojie) is one of the oldest holidays in China. It is held on the 15th day of the first lunar month and ends the two-week celebration of the Chinese New Year – the spring festival.
To learn about the history of the holiday, to get acquainted with the traditions of its holding, as well as to see how Yuanxiaojie is celebrated at the present time, participants of the cultural and educational event “Lantern Festival”, organized by specialists of the Confucius Institute at the Francisk Skorina Gomel State University by Vladimir Koval and Tatiana Silchenko, a teacher of Chinese, a trainee teacher of the Department of Russian, General and Slavic Linguistics Julija Lukashova.
Chinese postgraduates, undergraduates and students of the Faculty of Philology studying Chinese of the Francisk Skorina Gomel State University met in the festively decorated hall. In the online format, the celebration was joined by students of gymnasiums No. 10 and 71 of Gomel, Chinese language learners, teachers, graduate students and students of the Francisk Skorina Gomel State University.
The event was hosted by specialists of the Confucius Institute Vladimir Koval and Tatiana Silchenko.
Vladimir told the audience a popular belief according to which the souls of deceased ancestors descend from heaven to earth during the New Year holidays to meet with loved ones and relatives. And on the Lantern Festival, the souls of the dead return back, and lanterns flying through the air illuminate their way to their heaven dwellings.
Graduates and students of our university, schoolchildren studying Chinese, students of Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno, students of Chinese language courses “Hieroglyph”, pupils of the regional organization of the public association “Belarusian Wushu Federation” addressed the participants of the meeting with video greetings. Poems in Chinese, musical numbers and performances by young athletes - the variety of video cards is impressive!
Irina Kovalevich, Head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages of the Mozyr State Pedagogical University named after I.P.Shamyakin, congratulated those present online.
The end of the festive event was the presentation of sweet treats and souvenirs to all participants of the meeting.
