Today, we got to experience a little bit of Chinese culture. Our sponsor school, Hoping Elementary, hosted a Lantern Festival Party for the JiJi and Nantou Teams. (Lantern Festival marks the end of a month long celebration of Chinese New Year. The celebration of Chinese New Year begins on the 16th day of the last month of the year and ends the 15th day of the New Year with a celebration of Yuan Hsiao Chie. A tradition of carrying lanterns to parks and temples has caused it, in English, to be called the Lantern Festival.)
We started the afternoon off having coffee with the two Principals that our teams work closely with. After chatting for a while, we set off to a nearby flower field, where we enjoyed an hour of photographing and picking flowers. (Side note: Flowers have nothing to do with the Lantern Festival; it was simply a fun thing to do.) After the flower field, we walked to a nearby outdoor restaurant, where we took more pictures and enjoyed a nice meal. After the meal, we all made a lantern. Because it is the year of the rooster, the DIY (do it yourself) lanterns were made to look like roosters. We took more pictures, and then walked through town with our rooster lanterns. Because some of us teach here in JiJi, we were able to see many of our students as we walked around town. The last place we stopped was a small night market and a small park that has been decorated for the celebration of Chinese New Year for almost 3 weeks. The night market and the park were filled with people. Vendors were selling drinks, jewelry, toys, and all sorts of foods. In the park, there were displays that businesses and different groups had made to promote the holiday. Many of the displays were hand made and carried the theme of “The Year of the Rooster”. Yes, our little town of JiJi seems at times small and boring, it was a lot of fun to get to spend the afternoon and evening with both the Nantou team and some of our Chinese friends.
Xin Nian Kuaile,
(Happy New Year)
Holly Polson
JiJi Taiwan
If you would like to see pictures of our outing, I will be posting them on my personal blog over the next few days. To read more about the Lantern Festival and to see some really neat pictures go to: http://www.index-china.com/index-english/Lantern.html
