Hainan communities celebrate Lantern Festival with parades, flower exchanges
Twelve Flower Goddesses dressed in gorgeous costumes and holding fresh flowers interacted with residents and tourists, posing for photos and offering blessed flowers, a symbol of beautiful wishes during the holiday. The flower street check-in spots offered picturesque views at every step.
Concurrently, Haikou's Qiongshan district celebrated the Fucheng Lantern Festival Flower Exchange, its most romantic day of the year. The event attracted about 267,000 enthusiastic participants.
This millennia-old festival was originally named the "Incense Exchange Festival". People would exchange incense to pray for the continuity of the family line and prosperity. In 1984, for safety reasons, exchanging incense evolved into exchanging flowers. While the original intention of praying for blessings and good fortune remained unchanged, it gained an added touch of romance and poetry.






















