It's been a very busy two weeks as we have enjoyed the Spring Festival here in Jiaozuo. On New Year's Eve, February 2, we celebrated with a party at Eagles Wings 3. The children from about 9 and up were allowed to stay up late playing games, watching the official CCTV New Year entertainment marathon (which is actually pretty good) and eating traditional snacks (oranges, peanuts, sunflower seeds and some candies). The Eagles Wings 1 kids taught the others to play Uno, Swap, Jenga and the Beijing Memory Game, some of our favorites. We also had a mini (mini mini) pool table which kept some of the kids occupied for hours. At about 10:15 I realized that some of the kids were starting to fade so rather than lose them we had our midnight festivities a little early. We set off four confetti fire works. Those things are WAY cool. They are large tubes filled with paper confetti that explode with a pop and shoot the confetti into the air. A great way to usher in the year of the rabbit.
Last night was the full moon which signifies the end of the spring festival, and my favorite part of the holiday...Lantern Festival. Traditionally families will light paper lanterns and send them into the sky (kind of like a mini hot air balloon). It's so pretty when the sky is dotted with little lanterns. And then there are the massive fireworks! Just a great time as hundreds of people gather to watch. It's one of the things that makes me feel part of the community. It's also a very, very noisy day as firecrackers explode from morning until night along with smaller fireworks displays pretty much everywhere. The explosions echo off the buildings and car alarms go off everywhere. It's very exciting, but also nice when it stops. Which hasn't quite happened yet...we woke up at 7 this morning to the boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom of firecrackers just below my window.
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