Day: February 17, 2011
Around Town: Lantern Festival
Of course, with the Lantern Festival being the day, the highlight of all the fire cracking – when for one night everyone is going berserk with lighting fireworks – I had to make a little more effort than on the Chinese New Year’s Eve to get some better shots of the fireworks. Now, the town’s official fireworks show had just been canceled, due to the drought around here and the town officials’ decision to invest the money in watering the fields instead of blowing it up with the fireworks. So, the best shot I would have to get some good pictures – I figured – was the roof of the teacher’s flat. So, I grabbed my camera, positioned myself alongside some of my colleagues, and then I watched. And pressed the shutter, of course! Take a look yourself:
Lantern Festival
It marks the grand finale of the Spring Festival celebrations: the Lantern Festival. Each year on the fifteenth of the first month (according to the Chinese Calendar), the Spring Festival comes to an end with yet another day of fireworks, and special festivities. In fact, while the emphasis is on fire cracking in the beginning of Spring Festival, it is the great displays of fireworks and light-shows that characterize the Lantern Festival. Many towns organize big shows with glamorous fireworks and lantern parades (showing off uniquely shaped and decorated lanterns), while private citizens take advantage of the chance to fire up yet another array of fireworks in all shapes and sizes. The origins of the Lantern Festival are not quite certain, as there are numerous legends circulating with regards to how and why this festival first was implemented. Many of those legends commonly refer to events of where the setting up of lanterns and lighting of fireworks was done to prevent some destruction that was to come upon the people. In other instances, the day’s …