Tangyuan and FunFair

According to the Chinese Moon Calendar today is the last day of celebrating the Chinese New Year aka YuanXiao (元宵) (which is always on the 15^th day of the first month in the Chinese calendar). So, today would be 15.01.2013 instead of 24.02.2013 – bit confusing I know :)

As a way for celebrating this we eat TangYuan (汤圆), which is made of made from glutinous rice flour filled normally inside with black sesame, red bean, vegetable or even with meat (so should be something for anyone’s taste either sweet or salty). Due to its round shape it kind of symbolise a re-union (normally to family re-unions as it is eaten together with family)

 
I prefer it sweet:

small Tangyuan for breakfast: filled with 15x blake seasam and 15x red bean *yummy*yummy*

After breakfast qq and I went to Fun Fair. The entrance for each of us was £1.

It's not very big (even though it says that it has over 90 rides and attractions to choose from - but I didn't feel that I saw them all?!)

They opened from 15.Feb till 25.Feb. – so tomorrow is the chance to visit it (as it will be the last day all rides will only cost £1)

I got this cute little dolphin (left corner) as qq won the shoot game

After that we went home and eat – surprise... Tangyuan again :)

big Tangyuan for "late afternoon tea"/ dinner: filled with blake seasam

For those of you, who are interested in the “story” behind Tangyuan:

"According to a legend, in the Han Dynasty, there was a maid of honour who was called Yuanxiao. She missed her parents a lot but she could not leave the palace, therefore, she wept all the time and even wanted to turn to suicide. A minister knew her story and promised to help her. What Yuanxiao needed to do was to make lots of Tangyuans, which was the best cuisine she could make, in order to worship the god on 15th day of the first month in the Chinese calendar. Finally, Yuanxiao did a great job and the emperor was so contented; therefore, Yuanxiao was permitted to meet her parents, Tangyuan was named as Yuanxiao and the 15th day of the first month in the Chinese calendar was considered to be Yuanxiao Festival."

Source: Wikipedia