Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival starts on the last day of Spring Festival. The internet says it can be traced back to 2,000 years ago, so it's been going on for awhile. Chinese people celebrate the festival differently, depending on the region. The main part is hanging and looking at Chinese lanterns. Other activities include lion dances, guessing lantern riddles, and eating yuanxiao (glutinous rice balls with filling inside, sooooooo good). 2017 is the year of the rooster, which is why there are so many chicks/roosters in the pictures below.

My Chinese tutor and her roommate invited Dan and I to Baotu Springs to see the lanterns. It was a lot of fun. I took lots of pictures. It was really crowded (although we did go on a weeknight) and really pretty. It reminded me a little of going to the German market in Chicago around Christmas (although a LOT bigger and there wasn't really any shopping, so they really weren't that similar).

I'd forgotten how weird it is to be a foreigner tourist in China. In China it's not rude to stare (which I knew so it never surprised me although it still makes me uncomfortable) but it also isn't rude for people to take pictures of you. At one point we were standing looking at a screen while our friends were trying to guess riddles and I heard someone say "you are beautiful" while walking past me. I looked out of the corner of my eye and the guy and a girl who was with him weren't walking away - they were just standing there. We left and they followed us for what might have been ten minutes saying random words in English. When we stopped the girl was trying to take selfies of herself with me in the background. I knew exactly what she was doing. It was a little frustrating and I was trying to make it as difficult as possible. It wasn't that I didn't want pictures taken of me - I would have been perfectly fine taking a picture with her - but I would have liked her to ask first, but she probably didn't think our Chinese was good enough (although we were with two Chinese people) and her English wasn't very good. Around the same time our friends asked if Dan and I would like a picture so we gave them a phone and while they were taking our picture I noticed a lot of other people decided to take our picture too. It's a really strange experience. Right after that the girl asked if she could have a picture with us so Dan and I took a picture with her (which would probably go better on her social media page than a selfie with me in the background).

It was a lot of fun. I had never heard of the Lantern Festival before and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go with Chinese people.