The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-04-17
LANTERN FEAST TOPS CHINESE
 CELEBRATION
Gods Welcomed Back From Vacation by Songs and
 Parades.

Shanghai. April 17.-New Orleans may have its Mardi Gras. St. Louis its Yelled Prophet Parade, Paris its Bastile Day, Dallas its State Fair, but Shanghai has it's Lantern Feast and Festival.
 Pink rabbits-the kind that grow only in dreams, story books and China exquisite lotus blossoms, red fish, with great staring eyes; yellow drag ons, with long, undulatfng bodies, and any number of other flowers, fish and animals are invading the Chinese city and the settlement and giving a bright note of color and romance to gray, rainy Shanghai.
 The annual Lantern Festival and Feast of the Lanterns has just been celebrated in China.
 In the Chinese homes the older boys made the lanterns of paper, silk, cloth and bamboo for their little
 Hold Many Superstitions.
 There are many superstitions and customs regarding the Lantern Fes- tivaI,s which. by the way, is one of the most spectacular of the many Chinese religious celebrations
 The Feast of the Lanterns dates back some two thousand years to the Han dynasty and was originally a ceremonial worship held during the first full moon of the new year to bring the New Years celebrations of icially to a close.
 Chinese also declare that during the Chinese New Year all the gods have been off to heaven on a. vaca- ton and that on their return to the earth the people gvie them cordial welcome by shooting off ftrecrackers, holding lantern processions, giving theatricals and employing the sing song boys to clang their cymbals and blow their flutes in the temples and private gardens.
 Picturesque Processions.
 In the interior cities of China and even in Shanghai picturesque lantern processions are held. Hundreds of boys. in gorgeously embroidered coats. carrying the lighted flowers, birds and animals, wend their way through ed with laughing. chatting Chinese, all "out for a. good time-"
 The feature of procession Is the great, wiggling. undulating dragon from thirty to forty feet in length, which is carried on the shoulders of boys whose heads are hidden in the brilliantly illuminate dfacsimile body of the great monster.
 Bands of Chinese, CoStumed in reds and greens. richly embroidered and with elaborate headdresses, playing the weird. haunting music of the Orient, are features of the process sion.
 Illuminated Animals.
 Besides the great flower lanterns, which are very, beautiful, are trick animals, performing horses, water
 
 such sees in the temples and illuminated busts of heroes of China and even of America.
 The candle-endS from the dragons are sought by childless women, eager for souvenirs.
 Lanterns are hung on the pago- das which reach toward the sky like great pine trees, and when lighted the pagodas give the effect, at dis tanCe, of giant Christmas trees In the temples. special prayers are of fered by the Taoists, and theatricalS lasting three days are held in many Buddhist temples
 Tourists who came to China during the Chinese New Year celebrations had a glimpse into the picturesque story book life of the ancient Orient, which is unchanged by foreign influ- ence.