Festival of Lanterns at Yuyuan

Today was the last official day of Chinese New Year, the Festival of Lanterns, which is the fifteenth day of the First Moon. The girls and I celebrated by going to Yuyuan Garden, an area of old style Chinese architecture which I've posted pictures of here before. Today it was beautifully decorated for the New Year. Lots of lanterns, animals of the Chinese zodiac, dragons, and of course, money. It was a very busy place today... according to Mr. Wu, the Shanghainese "very like go to Yuyuan" at the Lantern Festival.

I thought this little one it her festive hat was so cute!


It may be hard to see in this picture, but the Bridge of Nine Turns was an absolute mob of people. The girls and I were going to attempt to cross it, but it truly seemed undoable. We went around the back way to take this picture. Everyone was trying to see the displays on the water.
Madelyn found this little sealed plastic pouch attached to a key chain on the ground. Inside were two tiny live fish! We later saw them for sale. Turns out fish are good luck (it's all about luck and money here, it seems) and will bring money to your house! We brought the fish home and released them from their tiny prison into a vase of water which our kitties promptly knocked off the table and shattered a few hours later. I scooped the fish up off the floor into a glass... we'll see if they are still alive tomorrow! The money god himself...

The Year of the Rat... this guy is surrounded by a pile of gold!
Lanterns!

The building to the right is many hundreds of years old, and is now a tea house. Apparently many celebrities have had tea here, including Bill Clinton.