Lantern Festival

This day marks the two weeks point after Chinese New Years and thus the end of all public holidays and massive firework displays here in Shanghai. The tradition is for people to take their lanterns into the streets and welcome Spring and the new year. It's common to eat tang yuan, which are sweet dumplings filled with sesame or peanuts, served in a bowl of hot water. Lanterns can be as simple as red paper globes adorned with the corresponding zodiac animal of the year... to battery operated spinners with blinking fluorescent lights twirling like a disco ball.

If you look closely, there's another type of lantern high above the city, the kind that is lit and that floats higher and higher until it disappears into the night.

Happy Tiger Year