Lantern Festival

Today is the Chinese Lantern Festival. Throughout the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Buddhism flourished in China. One emperor heard that Buddhist monks would watch sarira, or remains from the cremation of Buddha's body, and light lanterns to worship Buddha on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, so he ordered the monks to light lanterns in the imperial palace and temples to show respect to Buddha on this day. It then grew into a national tradition. Lanterns also sometimes have riddles written on them. If you can guess the riddle, sometimes the shop owner will give you a treat.
To the right is yuanxiao (you-wan-shao), or rice dumplings. They are the traditional food of the festival. They are, I would say, ok. Zhu Jie, our ayi, was kind enough to make some today, the girls are quite fond of them and Danny was served some at school today. They are extremely chewy, and the gooey dark stuff in the middle is bean paste (which tastes pretty good). The picture is a stock picture off of the internet, not something that I cooked.

The other thing that happens during lantern festival is fireworks. It once again sounds like a warzone. I am completely fireworked out. But the Lantern Festival is the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration so they should be ending soon.

Evelyn is usually our girl who does not like to wear clothes. Lately, though, she has been into clothes, and she acts like a model when she wears them. Here she is in a few of her get-ups; you be the judge as to whether she is fashion-forward or not:

Evelyn and Etain, often confused as twins.




Evelyn looking and acting too cool for the camera.

Um, no comment.

Evelyn wearing the ballerina outfit and red sparkly shoes she received in a package from Gakie. She got them a week ago, and the shoes have only come off her feet for bath time. She even sleeps in them. The other kids enjoyed their presents as well.

A few days ago Jane went to do a teaching seminar at a different school (a side project to earn a bit extra cash). Dan went along, and they both had a lot of fun. Here is Dan with one of the boys, whom he says looks like a Chinese version of his cousin, David Hack.

Here is Dan with the students and parents that Jane worked with.

Here is Dan showing off his newly-cleaned bookcases in his room. All of his Star Wars figures were neatly set up... for five minutes at least, until Etain wandered in there.

I also wanted to write something for my memory. The other day Evelyn went down the slide at a park and her hair was sticking up due to static cling. Dan said that she looked like Michael Spikal Phelps. It was pretty funny.

On Thursday, Dan turns five. We are going to have a party with about ten kids on Sunday, so there will surely be pictures then. Take care.