So Ends the Spring Festival

Tonight is the end of the spring festival. It is the celebration known as Lantern Festival when people light paper lanterns and send them heavenward, traditionally with messages for those who have gone before. Since spring festival (Chinese New Year) is a lunar holiday, it starts with the new moon and ends, tonight, with a beautiful, crisp white full moon.
In the city we used to live in, new year's eve (lunar new year) was a big celebration, but we never did find any special events going on in the city, just some fireworks at night here and there. Nothing terribly fun except the parties we put on ourselves. It was VERY noisy, though, with firecrackers from early, early (early!!) morning until late, late at night...for days. Lantern Festival, however, was SPECTACULAR! Huge fireworks display and hundreds of lanterns sent aloft from every direction. Big crowds gathering in the major parks and filling the streets. I loved it. <3
Here in our village south of Beijing it couldn't be more different. New Year's eve, as I reported two weeks ago, is a big, big deal with hours of fireworks in every direction. Firecrackers throughout the day, too, but never really deafening and never too early or too late, but ah, the fireworks. :) But lantern festival? Not so much. Yes, we have had some firecrackers throughout the afternoon and evening and have enjoyed some beautiful fireworks on and off since it got dark, but lanterns? Not a one. I keep checking to see if I can find any specks of light floating in the sky, but if past years are any indication I won't be rewarded with that spectacle. Oh, China. If there is one thing we have learned it is that there is not just one China, and as much as we learn, explore and enjoy, there will always be more to see and do and learn.