IT USED to be that young Chinese women were not allowed out of their homes.

Cloistered and kept well away from prying male eyes, women in ancient China were allowed to roam freely only on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar.

Like a modern tea dance, the young men would then come out in droves to seek pretty maidens as life partners.

That is why this special day - Yuan Xiao Jie - is also known as the Chinese Valentine's Day, explains Ms Sim Bee Hia, the secretary-general of the Hokkien Huay Kuan.

Brides at a mass wedding ceremony at the Hokkien Huay Kuan in the 1960s.

It is also known as the Little New Year - as it marks the end of the New Year celebrations - as well as the Lantern Festival.

Says Ms Sim: "In ancient times, Yuan Xiao was associated with the admiring of lanterns and lantern riddles."

There are many different stories behind this.

The one which Ms Sim recounts is a legend in which some hunters killed an animal belonging to the Jade Emperor.

Furious, the Jade Emperor planned to burn down the entire town, but his kindhearted daughter warned the villagers to hang lanterns everywhere to trick her father into believing that the town was already on fire.

The ploy worked and till today, people honour her by hanging lanterns at the same time every year during Yuan Xiao Jie.

Nowadays, most modern Chinese families observe Yuan Xiao Jie as a simple family get-together, where young and old meet to eat tang yuan - glutinous rice balls made with sugar, red bean or black sesame or peanut.

To evoke the celebratory spirit of Yuan Xiao Jie, the Hokkien Huay Kuan is organising a street festival with lanterns, lantern riddles and food on February 21 outside its Telok Ayer premises.

In line with the day's ancient association with love, there will also be a mass wedding ceremony for 38 couples.