The Lantern or Yuan Xiao Festival is one of the traditional Chinese festivals. It is popularly referred to as Chinese Valentine's Day and takes place on the first full moon of the Lunar New Year. It also marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Tang Yuan and Yuan Xiao are a traditional food for the Lantern Festival. They are glutinous rice balls made of glutinous rice flour rolled round with varieties of sweet fillings such as black sesame paste, peanut paste, red bean paste or lotus paste to name a few. These sweet dumplings are often cooked in a red bean dessert or slab sugar with a piece of ginger to make a soup.
If you enjoy cooking， here is a recipe of Yuanxiao for you
Ingredients:
1.4 1/2 cups （500 g） sticky rice flour
2.butter 7 oz （200 g）
3.black sesame powder 7 oz （200 g）
4.sugar 8 oz （250 g）
5.1 tsp wine
Methods:
1. Mix the butter with sesame powder， sugar and wine together. You need to heat a little bit. Make small balls about 0.3-0.4 oz （10 g） each.
2. Take 1/2 cup of sticky rice flour. Add water into the flour and make a flatten dough. Cook it in boiled water and take out until done. Let it cool down. Then put it in the rest of the sticky rice flour. Add water and knead until the dough is smooth.
3. Make the dough into small pieces about 0.3-0.4 oz （10 g） each. Make it like a ball using hands first and then make a hole in the ball like a snail. Put the sesame ball into it and close it up.
4. Cook them in boiled water. Make sure to keep stirring in one direction while cooking. When they float on the water， continue to boil for about one minute using less heat.