Celebrations are very important in our lives. These are the times when we would like to share happiness with our family and friends, whether it's a birthday, a wedding anniversary or a graduation.

Each year, Chinese communities worldwide celebrate the Lantern Festival - marking the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations on the 15th day, under a full moon. This year, it falls on Sunday, February 28th.

In former times, people who worked or farmed in the mountains faced the risk of being robbed or killed; so they used lanterns to tell their families they were safe. Nowadays, lanterns no longer function as a beacon but have become a symbol of peace and good fortune. Sometimes constructed with multicolored paper in the likeness of butterflies, dragons, birds, dragonflies and many other animals, these lanterns accentuate the more common, red, spherical lanterns.

The tradition around the Lantern Festival varies from family to family and from city to city, like all celebrations do. In some families the children are the "caretakers" who organize this activity to be enjoyed by the rest of the family, with well wishes to each and everyone. Other families prefer to take pleasure in this by participating in one of the many festivals held in the city, with enormous lanterns decorated in the most lavish way.

The traditional dish for the Lantern Festival is the special rice balls called Tang-yuan (is also called Yuan-xiao). In the Chinese tradition this mean the family will stay together.

To be invited to a celebration is something to be happy about and should be appreciated. If you have the luck to be invited to this festivity, take the opportunity to enjoy and let yourself be carried away by this colorful event. Many cities around Taiwan put up celebrations that can be enjoyed by everyone with no special invitation. With a friend or alone, this is a special time of year when we all can share our wishes for peace, happiness and good fortune with each and everyone.