Last week in Asia, couples grappled with a dilemma that comes up only every 19 years. Should they go for a candlelit meal for two in honor of the Western Valentine’s Day, or a rowdy meal with the rest of their family to honor the Lantern Festival?
Traditionally families gather to mark Lantern Festival, the last day of the lunar new year period. They fire off any remaining firecrackers and eat a big hearty meal featuring tangyuan, glutinous rice balls with a sweet sesame or peanut paste inside. Interestingly enough in Taiwan, it’s also a day for lovers, as many couples take part in the romantic ritual of releasing paper sky lanterns into the night sky.
That made this February 14 an interesting test case in globalization. Were folks in Taiwan more interested in Valentine’s Day, or in Lantern Festival? According to Google Trends, searches for Valentine’s Day in Taiwan still beat those for Lantern Festival by about 20%:
However, the top related search term was 元宵情人節 — or “Lantern Valentine’s Festival,” a portmanteau of the two terms, just as the buzz in the U.S. was of Thanksgivingukkah in 2013. Perhaps the convergence of the two holidays made it extra romantic? Certainly that is a reason for the creation of fusion, chocolate-filled tangyuan popular amongst Chinese confectioners this year.
Posted by Joyce Hau, Communications Senior Associate, Google APAC
Traditionally families gather to mark Lantern Festival, the last day of the lunar new year period. They fire off any remaining firecrackers and eat a big hearty meal featuring tangyuan, glutinous rice balls with a sweet sesame or peanut paste inside. Interestingly enough in Taiwan, it’s also a day for lovers, as many couples take part in the romantic ritual of releasing paper sky lanterns into the night sky.
That made this February 14 an interesting test case in globalization. Were folks in Taiwan more interested in Valentine’s Day, or in Lantern Festival? According to Google Trends, searches for Valentine’s Day in Taiwan still beat those for Lantern Festival by about 20%:
Meanwhile, searches for chocolate beat searches for tangyuan by nearly 40%.
However, the top related search term was 元宵情人節 — or “Lantern Valentine’s Festival,” a portmanteau of the two terms, just as the buzz in the U.S. was of Thanksgivingukkah in 2013. Perhaps the convergence of the two holidays made it extra romantic? Certainly that is a reason for the creation of fusion, chocolate-filled tangyuan popular amongst Chinese confectioners this year.
Posted by Joyce Hau, Communications Senior Associate, Google APAC
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