Many primary schools and kindergartens in Suzhou hosted events on Feb 19 to mark the Chinese Lantern Festival which, reckoned on the fifteenth day of the first month on the Chinese lunar calendar, fell on the day this year. The events helped the participating youngsters gain a better understanding of traditions and culture related to the festival.

In the event at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Affiliated School, the students at the primary school made traditional Chinese lanterns using paper, waste materials and painting tools, while kids in the kindergarten made rice glue balls (small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour with sweet fillings) together with their foreign teachers.

Wenxing Primary School in Suzhou New District held an exhibition of festival lanterns made by the teachers and students in the school’s Suzhou-style Lantern DIY Club. Each of the lanterns, hung high along the corridor, bears pictures and text about folk customs related to the festival.

Dongzhongshi Experimental Primary School organized a visit to a local nursing home, where the students celebrated the festival with the elderlies.

In the event at Suzhou Daru Central Primary School Kindergarten, a group of kids in the higher grade, wearing traditional Chinese clothes and doll-shaped masks, gave other kids “lucky bags” along with their festival greetings.