Chinese Lantern Festival

Bei’s family took me to the Chinese Lantern Festival in Fugu. This celebration is part of the Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year. For the past month or so, most people have had off work and school. At the Lantern Festival, everyone from the surrounding area comes to the city and has a celebration in the streets. There is a parade, people selling food and trinkets, a maze to walk through for good luck the rest of the year, and of course, lost of Chinese lanterns. There are many types of lanterns at the festival, but the most common ones look exactly the same as the ones you might find at a Chinese restaurant in America. I was expecting more elaborate or ones of higher quality, but they are the same thin fabric or paper.

In China, almost every single person in the area comes to festivals like this. In America, in contrast, not everyone goes to the 4th of July parade or county fair. In China, there is nearly 100% participation. The streets of Fugu were so crowded and noisy and dirty.



I may have been the only foreigner there. I might even be the only foreigner that has been in the area for some time. Everyone stared at me, and many pointed and laughed. Some even came up to me and touched my face. They laughed and said the Chinese word for American, and they laughed even harder when I said hello to them in Chinese. It is strange to be in the minority!