The Riddle Lanterns
A free Mid-Autumn Festival coloring page. US Letter, portrait, ready to print.
Download the PDF — freeNo email, no sign-up, no account. Print it as many times as you like, at home, in a classroom or in a library.
From the story “The Riddle Lanterns” 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.
A garden of hanging riddles
Lanterns hang from the trees of a garden, a paper slip dangling under each. Children read the riddles, guess, and win small prizes. Wei watches from the edge, sure he will guess wrong and be laughed at. His grandfather points to an easy riddle about something round that lights the night, and Wei whispers the answer, then says it out loud.
On the page: rows of glowing lanterns, each with its little riddle slip, children reading and guessing, and the full moon.
Cāi dēng mí, lantern riddles
Guessing lantern riddles, cāi dēng mí (猜灯谜), is a favorite Mid-Autumn game in China. Riddles are written on paper and hung from lanterns, and a right answer wins a small prize.
Questions about guessing
- Wei knew the answer but only whispered it. What makes a guess hard to say out loud?
- He got three right and three wrong and had fun anyway. What made that possible?
- What riddle would you write for the person next to you?
Fill in a slip
Each lantern on the page has a small paper slip. Pencil a riddle on one, or let a young child dictate it to you. Everyone gets one guess, and a wrong one earns a laugh, as it did for Wei.