Piggly Wiggly

The Year of the Pig is finally upon us! The Chinese family name “Zhu” is quite common, and since this name rhymes with the word for pig, many parents will plan to have their babies this year.
Yesterday, on the third day of the New Year, I went to a park here in Beijing to one of the temple fairs (the one I went to wasn’t held in a temple and it had little to nothing to do with religion, go figure). It is a time of lots of food, all kinds of shopping, and different games for all ages. It reminded me of a mix between a state fair, the fourth of July, and Christmas. It was really interesting to see all of the different traditional snacks available, and I was glad to get to taste some too.
The festive mood brought out all the wild characters this year! (Actually, this guy was one of many selling crazy hats and masks. What better way to sell them than to wear them yourself and catch the attention of your customers!)
People were relaxing and playing games like Ping Pong, Chinese Chess, and other traditional games.