19/02/2019
I am in my first week of the study of “The People Of The Promised Land” in BSF ( https://www.bsfinternational.org). And the homework assignment of today (19/02/2019) is in the book of Joshua, Chapter 5:1-12. It’s about the Lord asked Joshua to proceed with the second circumcision (Joshua 5:2/Joshua 5:4) for Israelites as their prerequisite to celebrate the Passover (Exodus 12:13). Today is the traditional Chinese 元宵节-（Yuánxiāo jié) also known as the Spring Lantern Festival.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, Today is the first 15th day; is the first full moon of the new year. Comparatively, the lunar Chinese full moon has always mathematically been set on the 15th day of each month for thousands of years. In line with the Passover celebration that has embodied in the Bible, in (Exodus 12) and in the Book of Leviticus 23. As we looked at the (Hebrew calendar), the 14th day of Nisan is the first month of the ecclesiastical year begins on the night of a full moon.
Furthermore, it says in the book of the Numbers, in the Bible, Numbers 28:16-17 – Vv16 The fourteenth day of the first month is the LORD’s Passover. Vv17 On the fifteenth day of this month, there shall be a feast; and a Jewish day goes from evening to evening. Therefore, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to think that the Chinese 元宵节-（Yuánxiāo jié) may have an association with the Passover, in the Old Testament days. It would require more citations for verification, which I am not confident to expound on it yet.
However, I would love to expand on the significance of 元宵节-（Yuánxiāo jié) in light of the Chinese tradition. 元宵节-（Yuánxiāo jié), in fact,marks the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration but its the festival of the first Full Moon. The festivities have had its inception from ancient times. The tradition has evolved into the folk custom, children would carry around the red paper lantern on the streets. The designs were simple in ancient times and more elaborate and complex in modern times.
元宵节-（Yuánxiāo jié) has now become a tourist attraction in many major Asian cities. There are competitions for Lantern designs. It’s common to see the hanging paper lanterns at the door to be in the spirit of celebration. There are huge, more sustainable paper lanterns as part of the street furniture. The etymology of the word 元 (Yuán) means the ‘ first’ or the ‘origin.‘ 元 (Yuán) is also the homophone word of 圆 (Yuán), which means ‘round’ or ‘roundness,’ the shape of the Full Moon, and the word of 宵 (xiao) means ‘evening.’
So people wouldn’t confuse 元宵节-（Yuánxiāo jié) with the mid-autumn Lantern Festival. In the old agricultural society, it was labor intensive. Most family members are expected to roll up their sleeves to work in the fields. They sweated and toiled throughout till harvest to enjoy their first physical break in mid-Autumn, The real break is, at the beginning of the year. It is when all family members to have times for a complete abstention from all kinds of works, not even house chores for housewives in reverence to their kitchen god.
Meals were either prepared or preserved for days or even for months ahead of the holiday season so that no one shall worry about cooking. Superstitiously, people have thought that the kitchen god and even the kitchen stoves would need times to Rest. People also superstitiously believe that they should avoid seeing the doctors in January during the holiday otherwise they would end it up paying a frequent visit to the doctors for the rest of the year, and after all, doctors also need rest.
If any family member didn’t manage to be home for the New Year Eve reunion they would try to make it for the 元宵节-（Yuánxiāo). With a feast, all family members are in a round table, which signifies 团圆 (Tuányuán) a reunion to cheer and make up the lost times. Today, in many parts of China especially people in the remote areas, still put their world on hold for two weeks holiday. However, socially and economically it is impossible for this kind of the tradition to go on.
Today, most Chinese-speaking people around the world still keep the same tradition no matter where they are settled. And 元宵节-（Yuánxiāo jié) has become more symbolic than before. As the custom evolves, year by year, people gradually to embrace the belief that Full Moon Festivals were Buddhist origin but most people failed to realize that either Buddhism or Taoism didn’t come to China until the 5th or 6th centuries. What do you think of it?
Psalm 8:3
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place. – ESV
The Light Of Faith 