On the afternoon of Feb 22, my heart was in excitement for the Lantern Festival. This was an event organized by Qiantang Community, Sijiqing Steet and Hangzhoufeel. I was a little early to try the Hanfu (汉服) costume on, which looked awesome on me, and in it brought to me a sense of belonging. They explained to us what the event was all about and we had different activities to attend to such as making the dragon hats. I would say making the dragon hat was a little challenging, with all the patterns to connect and make this art of hat. The second activity was printing traditional cultural elements and wishes such as "平安píng ān " (meaning "peace"), my print that manifested richness, health and peace for this new year.

Our third station stop was tasting Hangzhou local cuisine. We got to explore the cuisine taste and I loved tasting the fried dough stick, known as "油条 yóu tiáo" , because the taste is similar to that of my home country donuts. Trying the local food was fun, because you get to experience and analyze differences in cultural way of cooking dishes and the art of adding different flavors.

The other activity was to make sugar figuring and solve lantern riddles. Funny enough, my group failed to come up with the right answers.

The most significant activity that I fell in love with during the festival was making the dragon lanterns because it had a huge meaning. Getting the idea that it basically means people letting go of their past selves and getting new ones is so incredible as a life lesson. This year is the year of the Dragon and we made dragon lanterns. I was told that Chinese people light lanterns to symbolize driving out darkness and bringing hope to the coming year, and so is assured to my life as well.