Hi everyone, in today's Mandarin episode,  I talk about the two traditions of the Lantern Festival in China: eating glutinous rice ball (tangyuan & yuanxiao) and going to a street light show. Script and useful expressions below. 

(correction:  元宵Yuanxiao is popular in the northern area of China while 汤圆 tangyuan is more in the south. I said it the other way. Sorry for the confusion.)

Script：

大家好，欢迎收听时间过得真快啊，感觉才忙完春节，又要过元宵节了。元宵节是农历一月十五号。元宵节也代表着春节的结束。那过了元宵节，这年才真的过完了。

那元宵节都有什么传统呢？你从元宵节的名字就知道元宵节要吃元宵。其实这么说也不准确，因为在元宵节这一天，南方吃元宵，北方吃汤圆(correction:  南方吃汤圆，北方吃元宵)。很多中国人认为元宵和汤圆是一种东西，没有差别，但是其实不是的。元宵和汤圆是两种做法不同的元宵节传统食物。它们俩最大的区别在于制作方法(see useful expressions section below for more details)：北方的元宵是把馅儿在面粉里“滚”roll出来的，也就是roll the moist filling in the glutinous flour。而南方的汤圆是把馅儿像包饺子一样“包”wrap出来的，也就是wrap the filling with the glutinous flour dough。所以对我来说，其实我不是很在乎汤圆和元宵的差别。我更在乎馅儿是不是好吃。我最喜欢黑芝麻馅儿black sesame filling。不管是滚的元宵还是包的汤圆，只要是黑芝麻馅儿我就都喜欢！

除了吃元宵，过元宵节的时候大家还会“看灯” ，就是去街上看lantern festival lights and parades。我觉得就有点儿像美国的圣诞灯展-Christmas lights。当然了，中国的元宵节的灯展有很多中国文化的元素，比如大红灯笼啊，还有中国的龙。我小的时候每年元宵节我爸妈都会给我买一个或者做一个小灯笼，然后我拿在手上，一起跟家人出门去看灯。大街上有各种各样好看的灯笼和花车—花车就是floats—还有卖小吃的。我觉得元宵节看灯可以说是美国的street fair, Christmas lights, Mardi Gras Floats parade在一起的一个活动。而且小时候冬天也不觉得冷，拿着灯笼玩得很开心。

今天跟大家聊了聊中国过元宵节的两个传统：第一就是吃元宵或者汤圆。第二就是去街上看灯。那大家过不过元宵节呢？你们那儿有没有元宵节的灯展呢？感谢大家今天的收听。我们下次再见！

Useful expressions

1.  | 元宵节 | Yuánxiāo jié: Lantern Festival
2.  | 代表 | dàibiǎo: represent
3.  | 结束 | jiéshù: end
4.  | 传统 | chuántǒng: tradition, traditional
5.  | 准确 | zhǔnquè: accurate
6.  | 元宵 | yuánxiāo: yuan xiao, glutinous rice ball - The filling needs to be cooled, made into little cubic balls, and dipped into water first. The you roll the wet filling cubes in glutinous rice flour, which stuck on the filling in layers.
   The fillings of Yuanxiao are relatively simple. Traditional Yuanxiao is mainly filled with white sugar, sesame and osmanthus flowers paste.
7.  | 汤圆 | tāngyuán: glutinous rice ball - the process of which is similar to making dumplings: wrap the filling with the glutinous flour dough and make it into a ball with your hands.
8.  | 做法 | zuòfǎ: method of making
9.  | 馅儿 | xiàn er: filling
10.  | 面粉 | miànfěn: flour
11.  | 滚 | gǔn: roll
12.  | 包 | bāo: wrap (v.)
13.  | 在乎 | zàihū: care, matter (v.)
14.  | 黑芝麻 | hēi zhīma: black sesame
15.  | 灯展 | dēng zhǎn: light exhibit
16.  | 元素 | yuánsù: element
17.  | 灯笼 | dēnglóng: lantern
18.  | 龙 | lóng: dragon

Thank you for listening. If you like 5 Minute Chinese, please help me by subscribing, liking, and sharing the show so that it can help more people. Thank you for your support. If you have any questions, you can email me at [email protected].