It's yet another chinese holiday over here, Chinese Lantern Festival!
Lantern Festival - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are several different stories about the origins of the festival, involving various gods and goddesses, but it is their version of Valentines day, and marks the official end of the New Years holiday season. They celebrate by launching candle powered hot air balloon lanterns, and eating a traditional dumpling called Yuanxiao.
Google and YouTube have some beautiful images:
The last couple of years though I didn't see any big public celebration like that here in Shenzhen. That's because this is mostly a factory town. But I've got a local assistant working for me now, Helen, and I've asked her to find me something so hopefully I'll have some pics or vids of my own to post by tomorrow!
In the meantime, here's a vid of me and my chinese friend Jin and some of his friends trying to launch a couple of those candle lantern balloons on Chinese New Years day:
Lantern Festival - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are several different stories about the origins of the festival, involving various gods and goddesses, but it is their version of Valentines day, and marks the official end of the New Years holiday season. They celebrate by launching candle powered hot air balloon lanterns, and eating a traditional dumpling called Yuanxiao.
Google and YouTube have some beautiful images:
The last couple of years though I didn't see any big public celebration like that here in Shenzhen. That's because this is mostly a factory town. But I've got a local assistant working for me now, Helen, and I've asked her to find me something so hopefully I'll have some pics or vids of my own to post by tomorrow!
In the meantime, here's a vid of me and my chinese friend Jin and some of his friends trying to launch a couple of those candle lantern balloons on Chinese New Years day:
