Chinese Lantern Festival celebrated in Istanbul university

Some Turkish students from Bogazici University in Istanbul on Friday celebrated the Chinese Lantern Festival by involving themselves in traditional recreations as lion dance, making rice dumplings, cracking lantern riddles and performing tea ceremony.

Chilling cold outside, the long corridor of the Confucius Institute's part of building inside the campus was warm and in festive mood, with red lanterns hung in the ceiling, and Peking opera facial masks, Chinese calligraphy works and paintings put on the walls.

Two male students, who were asked to perform the lion dance only in the morning, learned hard from videos and completed their feat to repeated applauses.

The booth for making rice dumplings, or Tang Yuan in Chinese, drew a large crowd. Female and male students, under instructions from their Chinese teacher, made in earnest the traditional Chinese food for the festival and much enjoyed their fruits of labor later, as they know the round-shaped food symbolizes a family reunion in China and the celebrations mark the end of the Chinese New Year festivities.

Some students were invited to have Chinese food on Saturday, on which the Lantern Festival falls, as they were lucky to be awarded the chance in the prize draw, part of the celebrations.

Some 100 Bogazici University students take the Chinese course with the Confucius Institute each semester, with about 30 others from outside attending the weekend courses.

Chen Su, a vice consul general from the Chinese consulate general, lauded the efforts by the Confucius Institute in promoting the exchanges between the peoples of China and Turkey and the overall relationship between the two countries.

Two other Turkish universities, the Middle East Technical University and Okan University, are hosting the Confucius Institute as well. Endit