Lantern Festival 元宵節

We went to the Lantern festival. Now in some places the Lantern Festival is really impressive. Chinese lanterns are really beautiful, especially at night and out on a lake. People are also supposed to eat Yuan Xiao dumplings 餃子.

For us where we are, it was not quite that much fun but there is a nice outdoor festival. As usual it was really crowded with performers and shoppers. Part of the fun of going to these things is buying small little fun things. I got a small laser toy for our son and a small fan for our daughter, all for a cheap price.

You can see in this first photo one of my favorite places to go...for my toy. At these outdoor festivals books and videos are cheap, so I like to browse in these types of stalls. The second photo shows a seller of pets. I like the expression on the merchants face and on the boy who is looking in at them.

The last photo is of the street on one side of the festival in front of a Northern 山西 ‘broad noodle’ restaurant. A woman has her baby on her back, which is really the way to go in these crowded places. We have often thought of what to do with our little one who has a little too much energy for his own good in places like this. Maybe we could get on of those baby leashes, but he isn’t going to like that.