A porcelain bowl featuring children celebrating the Lantern Festival from the Qing Dynasty. [Photo/artron.net]

Guessing lantern riddles

When it comes to the Lantern Festival, "Guessing lantern riddles" is an essential component. Lantern owners will write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns in advance. If visitors can answer the riddles, they can just pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answers. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity emerged during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.