Yuan Shia Festival

Today is the "Yuan Shia Festival" on the Lunar calendar. It is better known as the Lantern Festival in the western terms. For most Chinese, Yuan Shia Festival is considered as a more descriptive term of this festival.


Yuan stands for "New Year" or "Beginning", Shia stands for "Late" or "End"; Yuan Shia means the end of the Lunar New Year celebration.


To round off the New Year celebration, there is a traditional treat associated with this festival. It is appropriately called "Yuan Shia". It's a sweet round ball made from sweet rice powder as the outer wrap with sesame or sweet bean paste inside.


The top picture is a package of frozen sweet rice balls "Yuan Shia". The second picture is a bowl of 4 cooked sweet rice balls that are ready for consumption.