Label Type
Tombstone LabelLabel
Lantern Market
Zhang Xuehua (Chinese, act. late 20th-early 21st century)
2000
Paint on rice paper
Gift of Andrea and Irv Green, 2019.1.31Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
The Chinese Lantern Festival, also known as the Yuanxiao Festival, is a celebration that involves the creation and use of lanterns. These lanterns come in many shapes and sizes, from traditional red lanterns to intricate designs, and may be made from a variety of materials. These materials traditionally include paper, silk, or animal hide wrapped around a wood or bamboo base. They were often illuminated by candles or the light of fireflies and, in the modern day, may be lit by electric or battery-operated lights.
Popular uses for these lanterns include lantern displays, releasing lanterns in the night sky or onto bodies of water (as a symbolic gesture of letting go of the past), solving riddles which were written onto lanterns or slips of paper attached to them, and shadow pictures which were drawn on a paper wheel that turns when heat is created… as this internal wheel is turned, the shadow pictures move on the outside of the lantern!