My favorite has always been the the turning Lantern. They have different paper cut out designs on each side and turns round and round. Some tells a story. The others has running horse on them, varied ever so slightly in each panel, so when the designs are turning, it became animated. It is rather fascinating to me when I was a child because at that time, TV is rare and not to mention animation. It also is very fun since kids don't usually get to go out in the evening and this is one of the holiday we hold our own little lateen and walk in the street look at all beautiful colors. The experience is very much like seeing Christmas lighting in the western culture.
Of course there is always food associate with any Chinese festivals. For this festival, the feature food is "Yuan Shiao". It is a rounded shape dumpling, with the wrapper made out of sticky rice flour. The inside filling can be salty or sweet. Some people put meat filling and some put ground sesame, and some puts ground up peanut with sugar. You can even get really fancy and put osmanthus or rose petal inside. I had always prefer the salty one. My husband never had salty yuan xiao in his life before he meet me. He think the salty ones are yucky and prefers the sweet ones. I guess there is a regional difference. My daughter's class made some and they fill it with Chocolate. Guess that is the US version :-) It tasted strange, but hey, anything chocolate taste good.This year school had a event for the children to parade around the school for it. Turns out to be a rainy day so they end up have to just walk around different classroom inside with their little paper made lantern. She was very happy to see us because not a lot of parents show up. She made me carry her lantern and it is great to feel like a kid again.
When i was small, i used to love chinese lanterns and looking at the pictures on each one. I particularly liked the animated ones!
ReplyDeleteYou're not going to believe this but i have never tried Yuan Shiao. It looks like a very silky dessert to me.
Your daughter is soooo cute! She looks like such a happy little girl.
Oh, your daughter is so pretty! It sounds like you both had a fun day at her school:) Yuan Shiao sounds interesting. I have never had the opportunity to try it, but the peanut/sugar filled ones sound really good!
ReplyDeleteoh when i was a little girl, i had a rabbit lantern and a dragon lantern and a rooster one and I'd go for a lantern hike with my borther, sis and all my cousins. it was so much FUN.
ReplyDeleteVintageglammz and Kristin: Have you had Japanese Mochi? Yuan Xiao taste kind of like that. I should find a receipe for you. It is very easy to make.
ReplyDeleteLisa: You are lucky to have so many varieties, and more importantly, to have your brother and cousins nearb y to play with. I was the only child and my extended families are far away. It was kind of lonely at times growing up.