Lantern Festival

       Falling on the 15th day of the first lunar month, Lantern Festival is the first significant feast after Spring Festival, so called because the most important activity during the night of the event is watching various wonderful Chinese lanterns. For its rich and colourful activities, it is regarded as the most recreational among all the Chinese festivals and a day for appreciating the bright full moon, and family reunion.

      Today, when the festival comes, red lanterns can be seen in the street, in each house, and store. In the parks, lanterns of various shapes and types attract countless visitors. Visitors marvel that various lanterns so vividly demonstrate traditional Chinese folklore. Thus, the demand for lantern during the festival will increase drastically.

      In the term of economics, demand is the desire and ability to consume certain quantities of goods and services at certain prices at a particular point of time. We know that price of the good itself is the main factor affecting the quantity demanded. However, there is other factor such as festival that would affect the demand. All consumers are believed to be rational and they will respond to different circumstances by changing their behaviour.

      The factors other than price will cause the shift of the demand curve. As a result of the Lantern Festival, the quantity demanded for lantern and other decoration stuffs will increase and this causes the demand curve shift to the right. The graph below shows the shift of the demand curve. 

References:

1. http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/01/10/lanterns-decorative-items-in-demand-as-cny-approaches/

                                                                                                By Lee Jie Shi 0315696