A Visit to the Lantern Festival - Essay Example

Being a student of Asian American Studies, it was mostly out of academic interest that I visited the lantern festival hosted by Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles. The friend who had suggested this event for me had told me that the festival was lot of fun with Chinese New Year celebration, and magnificent cultural events. When I reached the festival place, it was crowded already. The first sight itself of the festival would transport the onlooker into another time and space, into a traditional Chinese village street fair- where lovely lanterns swing in the wind and the mouth-watering Chinese rural delicacies invitingly wait along the pavements.

I could see the pavement vendors selling yuanxiao, the “glutinous” edible balls placed in sweet syrup, which is a special dish of the lantern festival (Fu, 75). The spectacular lion dance was being performed on the stage built at the festival site. I could see the richness of Chinese culture coming alive in many colors and hues. Also I was reminded of the cultural diversity of Asia and what the Americans could gain if we could combine our technological advancements with the magnificent global cultural inheritance.

The sense of community that was a common inherent factor in Asian cultures was at its full display. Chinese people had come with their families, friends and children to the festival. In contrast to this, almost all the Americans who came to the festival venue were either alone or accompanied by their peers only. Of course a few American women came with their children. But this is a significant difference between these two cultures. And the community bonding and family bonding inside Chinese culture is something that Americans can try to learn to survive in the totally chaotic and individualistic world of ours.

The bamboo flutes started melodiously singing with rhythm and the ambience immediately turned magical. The lantern festival, which is the culmination of Chinese New Year celebrations, is held annually on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The elegantly designed and ornamented lanterns are signs of peace of prosperity. These lanterns are also symbols signifying a myth, in Chinese folklore, which says that by lighting the lanterns and creating an impression that the town was ablaze, the Chinese ancestors had escaped the wrath of the Jade Emperor in heaven, who had plans to set fire to the town to avenge the killing of his goose by the town people.

This is a legend, which dates back to around 2000 years and the Han Dynasty. The lantern festival conducted by Chinese American Museum has an added flavor in that it envisages educating the visitors on Chinese culture. The craftsmanship involved in the making of lanterns, the color combinations, the beauty of origami, the fineries of Chinese calligraphy, the varieties of Chinese dance and music- everything was brought under one umbrella in the CAM lantern festival. A large number of the visitors to the festival were Americans and this presented a picture of healthy cultural mixing and exchange.

Especially the children who participated in the festival were getting an opportunity to train themselves to live in a cosmopolitan culture in which different races and nationalities mix. The American children who came to the festival could realize that there are other cultures in the world as rich and historic as American culture is. They could also get familiarized with a more ancient culture than theirs by getting acquainted with Chinese culture in such close quarters. Similarly, for the Chinese children living in America, the festival was a rare occasion to feel the ties of their roots, their culture and tradition.

As the Chinese value their family ties very much, this kind of festivals are for them, occasions to strengthen such family bonding (Fu, 69). Also, these children are getting a unique chance to live their culture in an alien land. In this way, both the Chinese and American children are here, participating in the making of a new cosmopolitan cult