Spring Festival

For those of you who don't know, Spring Festival = Chinese New Year, which is the beginning of a new lunar calendar. This year (in 2013, when we were actually in China), it fell on February 10, and it was our best Spring Festival ever (partially because it was the first time we've ever celebrated it). We had the amazing opportunity to join our Chinese friend, Kyle, and his family back in the village where he was raised.

Friday morning Kyle and his brother picked us up - along with all the blankets in our apartment. He had told us that there wouldn't be a heater in the village, so we should bring lots of blankets. We felt kind of silly bringing a huge suitcase packed with blankets, but it worked out! Part of the craziness of Spring Festival in China is that EVERYONE goes back to their hometown to celebrate. That's like 1.3 BILLION people traveling at once. Even within Cangzhou, down on our quiet street near the edge of the city, the traffic was absolutely insane.

When we finally got out of the city and onto the open road, we stopped at a market to get some fresh fish for the next few days. Then we drove for probably about 30-45 minutes to get to the village. It's tough to say how far we went though, because Kyle's brother had a need for speed. It was a thrilling ride, to say the least.

When we got to the village, Kyle gave us a tour of the village. He and Tom and I walked up and down the streets to look at the different homes. The village was set up in a grid pattern, and the homes were in the traditional Chinese courtyard style. Each home has a wall with an entrance (shown below), leading to a courtyard from which you can enter into the house, a separate little room for the bathroom (just a trench in the ground), or a separate cooking room for when it's hot in the summer.

Walking around the village was so interesting. There were old dilapidated buildings mixed in with the newer homes.

For example, Kyle showed us his old home (picture below) where he grew up, just a few doors down from where his family (parents and his brother's family) now live. This house was patched with mud and falling apart, and had no plumbing or electricity. Keep in mind that Kyle is not that old (in his 30s), and this is where he grew up. Kind of crazy.

After our tour, we had big tasty dumplings (baozi) for lunch.

This, of course, was followed by nap time. The bed they had us sleep on was by far the most uncomfortable bed I've ever experienced in my life. It was made of clay, with a few blankets on top. I now know that sleeping on clay is less comfortable than sleeping on dirt. However, the idea behind these clay beds is pretty smart. The bed in the main room (which, during the daytime, doubles as a sitting area, shown above) is made of clay and acts as a chimney from the cooking stove, so it gets nice and toasty while you cook and retains that heat (hopefully) through the night.

After nap time, we took a drive to Huang Hua (the nearest city, kind of like a suburb of Cangzhou) and looked at this ridiculously fancy hotel. Apparently we didn't take any photos, which is a shame, because this place was so dang fancy, and it seemed to kind of be in the middle of nowhere. Kind of mysterious. Until you realize that there are natural hot springs in that area, and that's what this hotel was built around. Before we came to the village, we had talked to Kyle about the condition of his brother's home, and we joked about how there was no shower. Well, Kyle (bless his heart) had decided to take us to this fancy hotel so we could go in the hot springs and shower. However, we didn't have swimsuits and it was pretty pricey (100 RMB per person) and we didn't want him to pay for us. So we just checked out the hotel and graciously declined. It was very sweet though.

When we returned to the village, we just hung out with everyone, watched the huge TV, read Harry Potter (Summer had them in English and lent them to us!), and ate dinner. About the TV: this was the weirdest part of the whole village home situation. This house was made of clay, and the home (and entire village) had only received electricity and running water (only in the form of a single sink in the kitchen) a few years ago. The only electricity in the house was used to power a few basic light bulbs, and this massive flat screen TV. The panoramic picture below shows the main room which functions as a living/eating room during the day, and a bedroom at night.

Kyle's mom prepared these fermented haw berries specially for the occasion. These are made by fermenting haw berries (in alcohol?) in a jar sealed with mud for several months. Then you break off the mud top (the picture below shows Kyle doing this) and enjoy the haw berries. Kyle was so very excited to share them with us, so we tried one each. The taste was pungent, to say the least. We told him we couldn't have any more, but were thankful nonetheless.

Anyway, then the fun began. We had some fireworks and played with sparklers with the kids. It was adorable and very fun.

I mean, look at that cuteness.

That night, we went to bed early in anticipation for an early morning. And good thing too - it was a long (and exciting) day. Early in the morning the fireworks started. And they didn't stop alllll day long. We were also awakened with light shining in from the kitchen next door, where Kyle's family had started doing ceremonies to show respect to their ancestors. Kyle's parents made food for their parents, burned incense, and set up a shrine. They also put dried flowers (herbs, maybe?) on the ground and knelt on those as they bowed to the shrine. It was so interesting to see this type of filial piety - it's so very different from our own culture! We were very curious about it, but didn't want to be disrespectful, so we didn't take videos or ask too many questions.

The shrine for Kyle's grandparents.

A lot of this day (Chinese New Year's Eve) revolved around making dumplings and visiting with family. As people (family and family friends) came to visit, they all showed respect to Kyle's ancestors by bowing in front of the shrine. It was so much fun to be involved in the dumpling process. We'd helped make dumplings before in China, but this experience was fun because we were there from beginning to end and we felt like we were kind of a part of the family. Unfortunately, though, my dumpling skills are very amateur compared to Kyle's and his family's, and I could only help so much without just ruining some of them (as you'll see in the video below.

Kyle's mom preparing the dumpling innards.

For breakfast and lunch we ate regular Chinese food and leftovers from previous meals.

These are Kyle's family's pups. They were so cute and snuggled each other. But we were warned not to touch them. They live in the house strictly to eat any food scraps that they find, not to be nuzzled.

We of course had nap time, and then Kyle took us around his village again - this time, to see families preparing for that night. In this village, where farming corn is the main occupation, it is a tradition to save up your corn stalks throughout the harvest and then on this day everyone binds a bunch of corn stalks together, and then lights them on fire to create a huge bonfire. These corn stalk bundles were like 20 feet tall! It was pretty awesome. As we walked around, Kyle told us a bit about the history of the village. It was founded by two families, the Liu family and the Hu family, so those are the two family names of the people in this village. Kyle's family name is Liu.

Preparing a corn-stalk bonfire.

Whilst walking around the village, we saw this guy casually squatting on the chimney.

We even caught a glimpse of the sun! The pollution was particularly thick during this time due to the abundance of fireworks.

We also saw this very safe-looking string of homemade fire crackers hanging from a tree by the road.

When we got back, we were greeted by the climax of Spring Festival - the fireworks! And an awesome bonfire! This was so incredibly awesome and overwhelming - just the sheer volume of fireworks was thrilling. Combine that with standing around an awesome bonfire with people who you barely know, yet feel so much love from and for, and you have one unforgettable experience. It was all made so much more significant and unforgettable having Tom by my side for all of it. I wish I could give more description here, because, like I said, this was the climax of the entire Spring Festival experience, but it was kind of indescribable.

After the fireworks excitement was over, we had a tasty dinner of meat dishes (according to what Kyle told us, traditionally eating a lot of meat during Spring Festival is a sign of abundance in the coming year. Kyle told us that he rarely ate meat as a child except for during this time.), corn meal soup, and steamed buns.

These steamed buns are made from beautiful wooden molds, and are traditional in this region (perhaps just in this village). Kyle's mother gave us a mold to take home as a gift, which really meant a lot to us. It was very sweet.

That night we gave them a loaf of banana bread that we made in our tiny oven before coming. They seemed to be fairly perplexed by it, but we thought it was flippin' delicious.

After dinner, we hung out with everyone, read some more Harry Potter, and watched a special program on TV for Spring Festival. I got the feeling that this TV special was like China's version of watching the ball drop in NYC on new year's eve in America - tradition for a lot of families. Later that night (around 10:30), we were told that once we ate dumplings we would need to stay in the house, so we couldn't go out to use the bathroom again until morning. So, by golly, we seized the opportunity to use those top-of-the-line bathrooms one last time. About the bathrooms: like I mentioned earlier, the bathroom is in a little corner of the courtyard, with its own little building structure. Inside is a trench (to squat over) with a shovel and a light bulb jimmy-rigged to the ceiling. This restroom is just for the women though. There is a separate restroom for the men outside of the courtyard and around the wall. It doesn't have a door, and is just a three-walled little nook with a trench, and no light. It made for quite an adventure for Tom, and I'm glad I could use the ladies' room.

Around 11 pm we ate dumplings (jiaozi), and did our best to follow what Kyle had told us we should do that evening, and just tried to mimic what everyone else was doing. We spoke less and spoke quietly (it was kind of a reverent experience), and we didn't face southwest while eating (something about having a bad crop that year). There were a few more traditions we got to learn about and experience. Kyle's mom went into each room and burned (fake) money (to send it to deceased ancestors), and she left a bowl of 5 dumplings in each room overnight. Also, each room in the house had to have the lights on all night long. And one of the more well-known traditions was that after eating the dumplings, everyone was officially one year older (this is how the Chinese keep track of their age - as opposed to changing age on the birthday, like we do in America). All the sudden it was over and Kyle told us to go to bed, and not come back out until 9 a.m.

Despite how utterly exhausted I was from all of the excitement of the day (it had been an awesome day!), I did not sleep hardly at all that night. It was a night to remember, to say the least. Between the lights being on, the hard clay "mattress", and the constant stream of fireworks, there wasn't much sleep to be had. Fortunately, Tom has an incredible ability to sleep, and I have a pretty impressive ability to get sucked into reading Harry Potter. Around 7 a.m. Kyle came in and told us not to come out until after 9 (again), so we read more Harry Potter. At 9 we got a parade of little boys in our room - very fun! We got dressed and ate meat dumplings with lots of garlic for breakfast. We hung out, mostly ate sunflower seeds and peanuts, and played with the adorable little boy (Kyle's nephew). After eating some more leftovers for lunch, we thanked Kyle's family and then Kyle and his brother drove us back home. It was a very sleepy ride.