BEIJING, February 15. /TASS/. On Tuesday, the Chinese celebrate the Lantern Festival, which concludes two weeks of festivities marking the Lunar New Year. The traditional food on this day is yuanxiao, which are rice flour balls with filling. This year, many Chinese prepared it in the shape of the Olympic mascot, the panda Bing Dwen Dwen.
According to the lunar calendar, the New Year begins on February 1 and the Lantern Festival (also called Yuan Xiao) is celebrated on the 15th day of the first lunar month. The holiday involves lighting a colorful lantern and having a family dinner, of which the Yuan Xiao dumplings are an important part, symbolizing the round moon and the fullness of life. These balls of rice flour are made with a variety of fillings (red bean paste, dates, hawthorn fruit, sesame seeds, peanuts, and chocolate) and are usually served as a soup.
This year, amid the popularity of the Olympic mascot, a panda named Bing Dwen Dwen, Yuan Xiao often takes the form of a bamboo bear. Long before the Lantern Festival arrived in the country, Internet users began to share step-by-step recipes for making dumplings in the shape of the Olympic mascot. It's not uncommon to find rice balls in the form of the symbol of the Paralympics, a traditional Chinese lantern named Shuey Rhon Rhon.
Before the pandemic, an integral part of the Yuan Xiao Festival included folk festivals, festivals in the parks, and the launching of colorful lanterns filled with hot air into the sky. For the third year in a row, mass events during China's New Year's Eve celebrations were canceled. In addition, this year, anti-epidemic measures in the country and, above all, in Beijing have been reinforced because of the Olympic Games.
Looking for the panda
The popularity of the Olympic mascot, the panda Bing Dwen Dwen, immediately skyrocketed after the opening ceremony of the Games, which took place on February 4. Olympic souvenir stores began operating long before the event but were not particularly popular.
Last week a bamboo bear-shaped batch of 300 toys was delivered to the flagship store of Olympic merchandise on Wangfujing Street in downtown Beijing. Those wishing to buy the mascot came long before the store opened and stood in line for more than 10 hours, but the toys were sold out in less than two hours. Despite this, long lines to the store lined up every day as the Chinese capital's residents try to buy some item that will be a memento of the Olympics.
A similar situation is in the souvenir store in the main media center of the Olympics. Journalists have to stand in line for a long time to get in. At the same time, the store shelves are almost empty, and the desired toy is sold by appointment only.
The mascot of the Beijing Olympics is a giant panda named Bing Dwen Dwen (designed by Cao Xue, professor of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts). In a statement from the press service of the organizing committee of the Games, it was noted that the mascot "has a suit of ice, a heart of gold and a love of all things winter sports, this panda is ready to share the true spirit of the Olympics with the whole world."