Mandarin Mondays: Candy (糖果)

Spring Festival (Chūn jié, 春节) isn't officially over until Lantern Day (the 15th day on the lunar calendar), but some things are returning to the way they were. The large amounts or firecrackers (biān pào, 鞭炮) and fireworks (yān huā, 烟花) are dieing done now. Shops are reopening. People are beginning to return from their hometowns. Slowly, people are emerging from family functions and things are beginning to look more like they usually do around the city.

Now people are returning from their hometowns with small gifts for their friends, mostly candy (táng guǒ, 糖果) it seems. I didn't know that candy was such a part of Spring Festival, but apparently most families buy lots of it, and everyone eats hard candies, crackers (bǐng gān, 饼干), and cookies (bǐng gāo, 饼糕) all Spring Festival, according to one of our friends.

Now Chinese aunties and grandmothers are looking for adoptive grandkids and showering them with lots candy. Or at least that is what is happening to our boys even more than usual right now. The boys biological grandparents needn't fear, the boys have plenty of candy here. They really are just trying to be nice to our boys. My English student also gave the boys a stuffed dragon. The boys affectionately call him Dino.