Lanterns Festival

February 17th was the official end of Spring Festival, and boy were we glad to see it go. I can only take so much noise from fireworks before my head explodes. Unfortunately, this holiday, called Lanterns Festival, was a little disappointing to us. Helen and John were out of town on a family emergency, so we were left to celebrate by ourselves. That means we probably missed the cooler things we would have done otherwise. Still, following everyone's advice, we went to People's Square to see what we thought would be lanterns (makes sense, right?), but there weren't any. There were a couple of big, bunny shaped lanterns, and the same red lanterns that had decorated the square for the past month, but nothing like we'd thought we'd see. Our apartment seemed more festive than People's Square, yet still there were thousands of people elbowing their way through the square. We're still not sure why. Maybe just an excuse to be outside at night and mingle with the crowd?

The one thing we were really interested in doing was lighting paper lanterns and sending them up into the air. We saw a handful of people doing that, but we couldn't find anyplace to buy the lanterns. Apparently, last year, there were some fires set because of these paper lanterns, so this year I guess people were more subdued. But the fireworks were loud, as always.

So we didn't spend too long out, and instead retreated to our apartment to watch a movie.

fireworks stand outside our apartment

While he's not at all connected to Lanterns Festival, not long after I saw little Mop Dog and got some decent photos of him because he was in a calm mood and didn't squirm too much. He's gotten a little bigger, but is still teddy-bear adorable.