Lantern Festival occurs on the 15th day of the first lunar month, and represents another climax in Spring Festival celebrations. The major activities during this festival include eating sweet dumplings and staging lantern exhibitions.

In a book dating from the Ming Dynasty there is an account of a typical lantern festival held in Beijing about 400 years ago, according to which, from the 10th to the 16th of the first lunar month, lantern makers all gathered on the street to trade their lanterns. Other businessmen took this opportunity to come and sell their own goods, and the street became thronged with potential buyers. The rental of the houses nearby consequently increased drastically.

Activities during the Lantern Festival also include "crossing a bridge and touching a nail" and setting off fireworks. "Crossing a bridge and touching a nail" is a way of inviting good luck and blessings, and is usually performed by women on the evening of the 16th day of the first lunar month. Crossing a bridge is symbolic of how one can overcome bad luck and misfortune in real life, and it is auspicious for women to touch the large nails in the city gate by the dark of night.