We kind of took it easy on Saturday & Sunday. On Saturday we walked down by St. Joseph's Cathedral (see photo above) it is just huge. We didn't get to go inside, but maybe we will another day. Yesterday (Sunday) we really didn't do much, we went down to the grocery store in the morning and had a short walk around then spent most of the day back at the hotel. Sunday was the Harvest Moon Festival (Tet Trong Trang). This Festival is one of the two most important holidays in the Chinese Calendar (the other being the Chinese Lunar New Year), and is a legal holiday in several countries. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally, on this day, family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon. Accompanying the celebration, there are additional cultural or regional customs, such as eating moon cakes outside under the moon, carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns, burning incense in reverence to deities, planting Mid-Autumn trees, collecting dandelion leaves and distributing them evenly among family members & Fire Dragon dances. We were able to witness some of these things over the weekend. On Friday afternoon when all of the school kids got out of school you could see them carrying their lanters home from school and all of the shops were selling mooncakes in fancy red boxes. Last night on our way home from dinner everyone was out in the streets and several families had urns of incense burning. We also saw a group of little boys with a dragon costume going in and out of shops. I bought a mooncake and tried it and didn't like it, not quite what I expected. Maddie is continuing to do well and I am seeing more and more of her personality every day. We had a great playtime yesterday afternoon and she is definitely very active, she is crawling and pulling up on things and at one point she stood on her own for a few seconds. Her favorite toys are the empty water bottles (as you can see from some of the pictures). She had another bath this morning and it went much better, she really liked it. Enjoy the pictures! She really does smile, it' just hard to catch them on camera, i'll keep trying.
2 comments:
How great that you were able to experience the Moon Festival...and an authentic moon cake. I agree with you, they aren't what you'd expect. I most likely won't be having a second!
Glad that Maddie turned a corner with the bath. Millie didn't decide she liked them until we were home! We were having to get in the tub with her and hold her while the other one of us bathed her. Not easy or fun. So glad it's easier for you!
Keep the photos and posts coming. They are a huge part of my day!
Catherine
I have the same problem with Molly! She can be laughing and I will pull out the camera and out comes Miss Serious. Too funny! :-)
Madison looks GREAT! I love her bow! :-)
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