Chinese Festivals

As an ancient country, China has various festivals.

In the evening before the Spring Festival, families get together and have a big meal. Children also get lucky money from parents.

During this festival, there is special food called “tang yuan”, which is said to symbolize both the first full moon and family unity and completeness. Part of the Lantern Festival tradition involves a game to guess riddles (谜语) attached to the lanterns.

Stilt walking, drumming and the dragon and lion dance are the main entertainment forms of the Lantern Festival.

It is to celebrate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, a loyal and highly respected minister, who brought peace and prosperity (繁荣) to the state but ended up drowning himself in a river as a result of being vilified (诽谤).

On the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, there is a traditional festival full of romance. Recently the youth have celebrated it as Valentine’s Day in China.

It is a traditional festival for both the Han and minority nationalities in China.The custom of worshipping (礼拜) the moon can be dated back to the ancient Xia and Shang dynasties. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also a holiday for members of a family to get together.

On the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, people celebrate the Double Ninth Festival. People usually climb mountains and eat double-ninth cakes, which means our life will become better and better.

Competing in the Mongol Derby

Standing at the finishing line, 70-year-old Bob Long spent a while reflecting on the achievement he’d just made. Behind him was the wild, endless Mongolian grassland extending into the distance. This American had just become the oldest person to ever complete and win the Mongol Derby, the world’s longest horse race.

Long, a rider all his life, entered the race after being inspired by All the Wild Horses, a movie based on the exhausting event.

Fearing that he wouldn’t be able to complete it, he set about preparing his mind and body for this “hardest, toughest, most demanding thing you can do on a horse”, an annual 1,000-kilometer race that was recognized as the world’s longest horse race by The Guinness Book of Records in 2011. He confirmed his belief that preparation can surpass (超过；胜过) youth, as some of the other riders were less prepared.

Although Long had been riding horses for many years, the hardship and uncertainty of the task pushed him to his limit and forced him to depend entirely on his own will. The race organizers had provided an extensive support network to keep an eye on the participants from afar. Despite that, the physical pressure of riding such a long distance made simple things like squatting (蹲) down at the end of the day almost impossible.

Along the vast race course there were unpredictable circumstances beyond Long’s control, however well prepared he’d been. Weather was one of them, which could switch from heavy rain to burning sun unexpectedly.

Above all else, the biggest obstacle was the state of mind. Without a living soul in sight, Long was desperate for interaction, guidance, and comfort. This feeling of loneliness accounted for his hope that one of his fellow competitors would catch up.

Regardless of the hardship, Long felt a sort of spiritual adventure while traveling through the wilderness. He was provided with some memorable moments while connecting with nature. He also grew to love the country and the communities along the route.

Still holding the passion for riding, Long never dismisses the idea of competing in another Mongol Derby.

When Capt. Greg Galeazzi joined the Army seven years ago, he was well aware of the risks of injuries or even death he would face. In 2011, the risks became Galeazzi’s reality — he got terribly injured in an explosion where he lost his double legs. “I was a shell of a man,” he said. “Who I was, was gone.”

Before his injury, playing the guitar had been a special pastime for Galeazzi. Music had always been important to him. He felt deep sadness because he thought he’d lost his ability to play music.

However, everything changed when Galeazzi joined MusiCorps, a music rehabilitation (康复) program for severely wounded soldiers who are recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. “We match the injured troops with professional musicians,” said Arthur Bloom, who founded the program in 2007. “They help wounded soldiers play music and recover their lives.”

Bloom, a graduate of the Yale School of Music, offers his services to patients at Walter Reed who have an interest in playing an instrument. Program participants practice technique, write and record music. Or they may just get together for a jam session (即兴演奏会).

The journey to recovery for many soldiers is a long one. It can require dozens of operations and many years spent in hospitals. There’s so much downtime at Walter Reed, and that’s what they fill up with music.

Since 2007, Bloom and his group have helped hundreds of wounded soldiers. For Galeazzi, joining MusiCorps has helped restore his confidence and made him more optimistic about his future. “Something survived that horrible injury in Afghanistan,” Galeazzi said. “Arthur and his program changed my outlook on what is possible.”

“I’ve seen guys going through such a hard time with their injuries that they are very withdrawn,” Bloom said. “The music becomes their new way of communicating. It can be just as powerful as the spoken word. By injecting music into this space, we can inject life.”