Spring Festival at a Rural Village

On Monday, February 19th CCC had a trip to a rural village to celebrate the Spring Festival. We were greeted with a blast of fireworks on the village street. As our group walked up the street, dancers welcomed us. There were women dancers in traditional costumes and male stilt dancers. Drummers and horn players kept up a rhythmic beat for nearly and hour as the dancers kept time.


As the street dancing wound down, we were invited, in groups of ten, to villagers homes for lunch. These are courtyard homes with, perhaps, two buildings and an enclosure for animals. Inside the one building were two rooms, one had a cooking area and the other a bed, a table and a couple of bureaus which were also used as serving tables. The wok is set into a structure which is wood-fired from beneath. The heat and smoke travel under the bed and exits through a chimney, thus warming the bed. The beds are made of concrete or stone with a thin mattress on top. These beds double as a living room couch. A table was put in the middle of the room around which were added stools and chairs. Some of us sat on the bed. The woman boiled home made dumplings in the wok and also served us some vegetables and noodles. We sat around eating dumplings and exchanging stories of our experiences in China.





After about an hour of hanging around this house, my feet were really cold as there was no heat and the floor is made of cement. We thanked our hosts and made our way back to the whole group and then we were taken to a large courtyard where we were entertained by a magician and a puppeteer. There were quite a few children with us and they and the adults enjoyed the show very much.