BCI Athens Happy Lantern Festival 2017 in Iordanakion

As one of the most valuable parts of Chinese traditional festival culture, the Lantern Festival which lands on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar has been attached great importance both at home and abroad. On February 10th, all the Chinese teachers led by Professor Lijun Zu, Director of Business Confucius Institute visited its affiliated primary school Iordanakion where they celebrated the Lantern Festival with local teachers and students.

At the beginning of the event, Mr.Zu made a brief introduction on the Lantern Festival in which students there showed great interest and were all ears.

Now we came to the most brilliant part---guessing lantern riddles which has been a popular traditional Chinese folk activity in Lantern Festival since ancient China. Even in modern times, the event is still irresistible.
While the lovely students were engaged in the riddle guessing, the Chinese teachers were concentrated on the preparation of materials for making Tangyuan. Later students started to learn how to make Tangyuan with the instructions of the Chinese teachers. “It’s amazing!”, commented the students on the Tangyuan they made. Students learned how to make dumplings, another famous traditional Chinese food as well.
The meaning of celebrating Lantern Festival was beyond itself as it built a cultural bridge between China and Greece which enabled more Greek to know about Chinese culture.