Shanghai'd

Lantern Festival.
On the first full moon after the lunar New Year, the Chinese celebrate the yuan xiao yie, named for the gelatinous "yuan xiao" balls that are traditionall eaten during the festival. I suppose the lanterns are meant to symbolize the bright full moon, though no one was able to give us a great explanation for exactly what the history or reason behind the tradition is. Also, the lanterns are painted with Chinese riddles (example: daggers of water fall from the sky = rain), which are apparently nearly impossible to translate, or else our friends just didn't want to be saddled with the burden of trying to read each one to us in English.

Laurel and I and two colleagues from work, Andrea and Xenia, enjoyed a traditional 6 course Chinese home cooked meal courtesy of Xenia (with Laurel's help), then went to the famous Yu Yuan garden to view the festivities. The entire garden was beautifully lit us and decorated with lanterns and Disneyland-like scenes ranging from quite elegant to completely gaudy. One final (we hope) night of fireworks.