Lantern Festival is a traditional festival in China, which existed as early as 2,000 years ago in the Qin Dynasty. According to data and folklore, the fifteenth day of the first month has been paid attention to in the Western Han Dynasty, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is on the full moon night. The activity of offering sacrifices to "Taiyi" (Taiyi: the God in charge of all things in the universe) in Ganquan Palace is regarded by later generations as the first sacrifice to the gods on the fifteenth day of the first month.

Yuanxiao originally meant "the night of Shangyuan Festival", because the main activities of Shangyuan Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month were to eat glutinous rice balls and enjoy the moon at night, and later the name of this festival evolved into "Lantern Festival". On the night of Lantern Festival, the streets are decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and people enjoy lanterns, solve riddles on the lanterns and eat Lantern Festival, which pushes the celebration activities that began on New Year's Eve to another climax and becomes a custom handed down from generation to generation.

Yuanxiao was only called the fifteenth day of the first month, the first half of the first month or the full moon when the early festivals were formed, and it was called Yuanxiao or Yuanxiao after Sui. Influenced by Taoism in the early Tang Dynasty, it was also called Shangyuan, but it was only in the late Tang Dynasty that it was occasionally called Yuanxiao. But since the Song Dynasty, it has also been called Dengxi. In the Qing dynasty, it was also called the Lantern Festival. In foreign countries, Lantern Festival is also called Lantern Festival.