Christmas Eve

Even though the Chinese don't celebrate Christmas there were still lots of Christmas decorations around and Christmas music playing.

In Xi'an they have a very strange tradition on Christmas Eve.  As far as anyone knows this is not done anywhere else in China.   They block off North Street and people....well....just walk around. It's very strange.  There are vendors selling Mardi Gras masks, santa hats, devil horns, and other light up gimmicky things. (Plus all the normal vendors selling socks, wallets, snacks, mugs, puppies, and scarves.)

The Chinese call it a carnival.  There are even a few (LAME) carnival games.  When we have Mardi Gras or any other festival there is a main attraction.  The best way for me to describe this is Mardi Gras without the parades and with a Christmas / Valentine's Day / 4th of July twist.  I haven't been able to figure out why this started.   A couple Chinese friends asked me what our carnival was like on Christmas Eve.  I think they were disappointed to learn we don't do anything like this on Christmas.

My favorite part were all the lanterns in the sky.  It was beautiful seeing them over the wall.

After visiting a bar for a couple hours we left and the 'party' was starting to die down.  It was 1am - I really thought it would be back to normal.  It felt even more like Mardi Gras with the mess on the ground and the impossible task of finding a taxi.

This Christmas Eve was very different than the past 30 I've experienced.  I really missed being with my family back in America.  Skype was not the same.