Red lanterns are hung to greet the upcoming Lantern Festival which will fall on Feb. 22, in the Xuanhua District of Zhangjiakou City, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 21, 2016. (XINHUA)

People across China are decorating lanterns, preparing delicacies and organizing lion dances to celebrate the Lantern Festival, which falls on Monday this year.

Various lantern shows have become regular features of celebrations in cities and villages across the country for the festival as CRI's Luo Bin reports.

The Lantern Festival is held on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar, and marks the first full moon of the Lunar New Year.

The Festival also brings down the curtain on the Spring Festival holiday.

Apart from lantern shows, people across the country have different ways to celebrate the festival, such as performing folk dances and of course setting off fireworks.

In south China's Nanning City, magnificent lanterns of various shapes and sizes hang in the streets and always attract countless visitors.

Jiang Yutong, a local resident, says the show is a fantastic visual experience.

"My favorite lantern is that meteor shower tree. It's covered by glittering lights from top to its root, just like a real meteor shower. It's very beautiful. I wish for happiness for the entire family and booming days in the new year."

In southwest China's Guizhou Province, ethnic minorities also use lanterns to reflect their lives and express good wishes for the future.

Cheng Zonggui from the organizing committee of the lantern festival says every lantern has special ethnic characteristics.

"We have 18 ethnic minorities here in Weining, so we designed the lanterns based on the distinct characteristics of each ethnic minority. We invited professional craftsmen from Zigong of Sichuan Province, who spent a month on making the lanterns."

Rooted in tradition, nowadays the making of lanterns has been moving with the times, embracing new technology.

Liu Huijun, a textile worker says their creations of lanterns are made from recycled materials.

"For example, this lotus lantern is made from baling wires, recycled textiles, recycled wire and light bulbs. Others are also made from recycled materials."

Elsewhere in China, people in Mawei in southeast Fujian Province and Mazu Island in Taiwan share the holiday spirit by sending lanterns across the Taiwan Straits.

More than 30 sets of lanterns featuring the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac made their way from Mawei to Mazu.

Initiated in 2003, this gesture of cross-Straits friendship marks the first national intangible cultural heritage coordination undertaken jointly by the mainland and Taiwan.

Even though the nature of celebrations varies from place to place - some things seem to be the same wherever you go - such as eating sweetened rice dumplings.

In Beijing, a manager at a traditional Chinese food shop says the sales of sweet dumplings have reached a high point.

"This year, the sales peak for sweet dumplings comes earlier than previous years. In the past, we sold around 500 kilograms every day. But we sold more than 700 kilograms every day this year and there is even a shortage of supply."

Naturally enough, with Chinese community spread throughout the world, Lantern Festival celebrations can be found everywhere you go.

Several hundred thousand visitors came to see the lanterns, sample Chinese food and be entertained by a host of international performers in the New Zealand city of Auckland.

Jennifer King, director of culture at the Asia New Zealand Foundation says the celebrations bring Chinese culture closer to them.

"It draws people closer together. People just through osmosis learn a lot about Chinese culture coming here. We design our lanterns to say something about Chinese culture."

Lantern Festival traditions can be traced back thousands of years, and judging by the number of events taking place across China and the world, seem likely to continue for a long time to come.

(CRIENGLISH.com February 22, 2016)