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Lanterns[edit]

For information on a different festival that also involve lanterns, see Lantern Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns in Chinatown, Singapore

Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns at a shop in Hong Kong

A notable part of celebrating the holiday is the carrying of brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, or floating sky lanterns.^[1] Another tradition involving lanterns is to write riddles on them and have other people try to guess the answers (simplified Chinese: 灯谜; traditional Chinese: 燈謎; pinyin: dēng mí; literally: "lantern riddle").^[10]

It is difficult to discern the original purpose of lanterns in connection to the festival, but it is certain that lanterns were not used in conjunction with moon-worship prior to the Tang Dynasty.^[5] Traditionally, the lantern has been used to symbolize fertility, and functioned mainly as a toy and decoration. But today the lantern has come to symbolize the festival itself.^[5] In the old days, lanterns were made in the image of natural things, myths, and local cultures.^[5] Over time, a greater variety of lanterns could be found as local cultures became influenced by their neighbors.^[5]

As China gradually evolved from an agrarian society to a mixed agrarian-commercial one, traditions from other festivals began to be transmitted into the Mid-Autumn Festival, such as the putting of lanterns on rivers to guide the spirits of the drowned as practiced during the Ghost Festival, which is observed a month before.^[5] Hong Kong fishermen during the Qing Dynasty, for example, would put up lanterns on their boats for the Ghost Festival and keep the lanterns up until Mid-Autumn Festival.^[5]

In Vietnam, children participate in parades in the dark under the full moon with lanterns of various forms, shapes, and colors. Traditionally, lanterns signified the wish for the sun's light and warmth to return after winter.^[11] In addition to carrying lanterns, the children also don masks. Elaborate masks were made of papier-mâché, though it is more common to find masks made of plastic nowadays.^[2] Handcrafted shadow lanterns were an important part of Mid-Autumn displays since the 12th-century Ly dynasty, often of historical figures from Vietnamese history.^[2] Handcrafted lantern-making declined in modern times due to the availability of mass-produced plastic lanterns, which often depict internationally recognized characters such as Pokémon's Pikachu, Disney characters, SpongeBob SquarePants and Hello Kitty.^[2]