The Littlest Lantern
A free Mid-Autumn Festival coloring page. US Letter, portrait, ready to print.
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From the story “The Littlest Lantern” in Once Upon a Mid-Autumn Moon in China — eleven bedtime tales for ages 4–10, each with a word search and a coloring page of its own.
The smallest light in the procession
Mei-Mei carries the smallest lantern in the procession, a paper rabbit, and is sure it is too dim next to the older children's dragons and golden carp. Then she hears a kitten crying under a stone bench, beyond the reach of the tall lanterns' light. She kneels and holds the rabbit low, and its glow leads the kitten to a worried auntie.
The picture stays with the procession: Mei-Mei and her rabbit, bigger dragon and carp lanterns, and a big full moon.
Why a rabbit
At China's Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhōngqiū Jié), children carry lanterns shaped like animals, fruit and flowers. A rabbit lantern honors the jade rabbit, yù tù (玉兔), said to live on the moon. The everyday word for lantern is dēng lóng (灯笼).
To ask while coloring
- The tall lanterns passed right over the kitten. Why could a small light reach it?
- Mei-Mei felt too small to help. When have you felt that way?
- What animal would you choose for your own lantern?
Make the small one brightest
Color the rabbit first and keep the dragons and carp quieter. For a follow-up, fold paper, draw a rabbit against the fold, and have an adult cut it out to tape onto a paper straw.