Large sets of lanterns were illuminated at Ancient Xumen Square at 18:00 on Jan. 23, the day of “Little New Year”, or xiaonian in Chinese, which is usually celebrated a week before Chinese New Year.
This year’s lantern festival features several sets of lanterns which are crafted by a team led by Wang Xiaowen, a national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor of Suzhou-style lantern craft. It took 3 months to complete the main set of lanterns which is 15 meter wide and 3 meters high.
As a renowned traditional lantern festival in Suzhou, the Ancinet Xumen Lantern Festival has been held for 23 consecutive years. This year, visitors can not only view lanterns, but also guess lantern riddles, visit an intangible cultural heritage market, and watch the dragon lantern dance which has been recently selected as a provincial-level ICH representative item.
