This day's important activity is watching lanterns. Throughout the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Buddhism flourished in China. One emperor heard that Buddhist monks would watch sarira, or remains from the cremation of Buddha's body, and light lanterns to worship Buddha on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, so he ordered to light lanterns in the imperial palace and temples to show respect to Buddha on this day. Later, the Buddhist rite developed into a grand festival among common people and its influence expanded from the Central Plains to the whole of China.
Till today, the lantern festival is still held each year around the country. Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the streets, attracting countless visitors. Children will hold self-made or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets, extremely excited. "Guessing lantern riddles"is an essential part of the Festival.
Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.
People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on this day, so it is also called the "Yuanxiao Festival."Yuanxiao also has another name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour with rose petals, sesame, bean paste, jujube paste, walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar and edible oil as filling. Tangyuan can be boiled, fried or steamed. It tastes sweet and delicious. What’s more, tangyuan in Chinese has a similar pronunciation with "tuanyuan”, meaning reunion. So people eat them to denote union, harmony and happiness for the family.
In the daytime of the Festival, performances such as a dragon lantern dance, a lion dance, a land boat dance, a yangge dance, walking on stilts and beating drums while dancing will be staged. On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival. Some local governments will even organize a fireworks party. On the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.
每年農歷的正月十五日，春節剛過，迎來的就是中國的傳統節日--元宵節。
元宵主要的活動就是看燈。東漢明帝時期，明帝提倡佛教，聽說佛教有正月十五日僧人觀佛舍利，點燈敬佛的做法，就命令這壹天夜晚在皇宮和寺廟裏點燈敬佛，令士族庶民都掛燈。以後這種佛教禮儀節日逐漸形成民間盛大的節日。該節經歷了由宮廷到民間，由中原到全國的發展過程。
直到今天，元宵點燈的習俗仍然在中國的各地流傳的，各式各樣美麗的花燈在這壹天都會點亮，孩子們提著自制的燈籠走街串巷，非常高興。
猜燈謎也是元宵節的壹項重要活動，花燈的主人會將謎面寫在燈籠上，掛在門口，如果有人可以猜中，就能得到小小的禮物。這項活動最早起源於宋朝，因為謎語能啟迪智慧又饒有興趣，所以流傳過程中深受社會各階層的歡迎。
民間過元宵節吃元宵的習俗。元宵由糯米制成，或實心，或帶餡。餡有豆沙、白糖、山楂、各類果料等，食用時煮、煎、蒸、炸皆可。起初，人們把這種食物叫“浮圓子”，後來又叫“湯團”或“湯圓”，這些名稱“團圓”字音相近，取團圓之意，象征全家人團團圓圓，和睦幸福，人們也以此懷念離別的親人,寄托了對未來生活的美好願望。
隨著時間的推移，元宵節的活動越來越多，白天有耍龍燈、耍獅子、踩高蹺、劃旱船扭秧歌、打太平鼓等傳統民俗表演。到了夜晚，除了五顏六色的美花燈之外，還有艷麗多姿的煙火。大多數家庭會在春節時留下壹些煙花等到元宵節這天燃放，而壹些地方政府也會舉辦煙花大會，當新年的第壹個月圓之夜在盛大的煙火表演中來臨時，人們都陶醉在這令人難忘了煙花與皎潔的明月中。