Chance of showers
Well, the water splashing festival has come and gone. It lasted three days around here, Saturday through Monday. We didn't quite get into the thick of things. On Saturday we had a little Easter party for the students--basically eggs and crayons and a few munchies--so we spent all morning in the apartment getting ready. Afterwards, Yau Neih and I ventured down to the store for groceries. We saw some people walking around with water basins, but only one seemed inclined to water the foreigners and that was with a brief sprinkling. From what the students told us, the big action seemed to be happening down at the park. Oh, well. It would have been nice to have checked it out, but there was dinner and English corner to tend to.On Sunday, we went to the big Easter service, but we avoided the Easter finery lest we get splashed. I wasn't expecting much, however. We had been told that each day of the festival had a different focus. Saturday was for splashes of happiness, Sunday was for love and Monday was for splashing enemies. (I neglected to ask if this was a malicious splashing or a kind of "love your enemies" thing.) I figured that as a middle aged lao wai, I was safe. As we rode along on the bus, we could see that some people were out splashing. It occurred to me that the well wishes might be more general and not limited to one's true love. As we headed away from downtown, the splashing seemed to increase. A couple of people even splashed our bus! (One group seemed to be a bunch of restaurant employees. When we got off the bus we started heading down the road to the church. Suddenly we heard shouts and saw a gang of young men running towards us. We had got off the bus with a few young ladies and, well, I figured the boys weren't interested in me. Sure enough, the girls scattered--screaming--and the gang hunted them down. No light sprinkles here, the bucketfuls of water went flying. Actually, I should mention that my family scattered, too. Yau Neih and Siu Wan hurried down the road. I kept my pace and Ga Dai, alas, went running with the girls and got splooshed. She took it rather well, as did the other girls. I pulled out my handkerchief and held it out to my daughter so that she could wipe off her glasses. At that point, some young punk, who obviously had not read the memo about Sunday being "love" day, broadsided me with a bucketful. Fortunately he missed my spectacles, since my hankie got decidedly wet and useless.
After that, the festival was back to boring. We got some sprinkles on the way back from church. A delivery van from a local bakery was spritzing folks with a squirt gun as it rolled down the street. But it was nothing to write home about. On Monday we again went shopping. This time there were more folks out and a couple of people did take shots at the middle aged lao wai. By then I had figured out that no matter the roots of the holiday, most of the participants were splashing for the fun of it. So I didn't take any splashes as a declaration of enmity. Quite the opposite--it was so hot out that I could truthfully smile and say "xie xie." This would be a nice holiday to import to the States--though the northern states would want to wait a couple months to observe it.
posted by John @ 1:28 AM
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