"Dishonor!"

"Dishonor! Dishonor on your whole family! Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow"-Mushu



Yesterday was the Chinese Lantern Festival. It was a lot of fun, and actually turned out just like I thought it would! There were fireworks everywhere, and of course Lanterns almost everywhere. So why the dishonor quote? Well the chinese people, write wishes on the lanterns, or make wishes. The lanterns then fly up to the gods, where they get the wishes and grant them! I have also heard that they use them to honor their ancestors, or to wish for the
Ancestors. Well here is my story of dishonor! ;-)

We started the night with a nice dinner with friends, then continued to an old area of Shaoxing to see lanterns (very cool). When we got out of that area we decided to head towards the floating lanterns.

There were so many, and we new if we went to where they were starting, we would be able to light our own! YAY!! So we went to the city center. We found a guy selling them on the street and took his last one! Then headed towards the center of the City Center.

Luckily for us, we were with a friend that smoked, and he let us use his lighter. Yay, doesn't it look like fun? We also decided to have this lantern be for our families all the way across the side of the world! hehe These lanterns are a lot like hot air balloons, where you have a heat source, hence the lighter, and then you wait for the hot air to take it up. We were waiting for it to heat up, waiting, and waiting and then..... this happens:

Yes that is a security guard stomping on my lantern! On my family's lantern! That makes him sound really mean. In reality, he came and talked to us first, luckily our Chinese friend was there to translate. He basically said that it was a fire hazard and we couldn't fly it. Okay,fine, we understood that, but what we didn't understand is this:


There were people all around us lighting these things, and we hadn't seen anyone take theirs down and stomp on it! What is that all about? Is it because we are foreigners and we stood out amongst all the people there? o'well oh and another funny thing is, on our way out we saw three police officers helping one family get their lantern up....what?

Yes, I did take a photo of the fallen lantern. Our friend told us that a little girl said it was nice of me to honor our lantern with a picture. Oh and the people around us when the security guard came were angry with him too! That makes me feel a little better.


On the way out of the center we ran into a girl selling the lanterns, and we bought another one to take back to the campus with us where we new the security guard wouldn't stomp on it, but probably help us set it up. The girl selling was also caught and in trouble for selling them because I guess no one was supposed to have them. Hooray for enforcing the rules. oh, and the girl selling them walked away, probably ready to sell them to the next person who wants one.

Yay!! It is actually working, and no one is around to stomp on it! Our friends bought another one too, it landed in a tree but Michael saved it before it caught on fire! whew....


Up Up and away!

There it is, that little dot! It was a windy night and it went up and far fast! When I got up to my apartment, it was still flying, but only for a few minutes. Then it blew out! I guess we redeemed our family honor! haha