February 06, 2008

China

We took a quick trip to China tonight. Thanks, Joey for the free airline tickets. The boys really loved it. We walked around downtown admiring all the funny looking signs and tried to pronouce some of them. But we had tourist written all over our foreheads.
Cub Scouts are always prepared so we had our 'Cub's Chinese Dictionary' to help us with translation.
We learned that 'qing tou xie' means 'please take off shoes' and 'tian dian ma?' means 'would you like a snack?' We went to the Jiang Kai Shek Museum and learned so many interesting facts about Taiwan and China.

Our guide told us that the Chinese people have a strong belief in heritage and honoring their ancestors. They believe that when they die they go to a spirit world and they NEED 4 things to survive there. Money, a Car, Food, and Clothes. it is the responsibility of the children to provide for their parents. So the children burn these items in these paper bags
and that is how they 'send' them to their ancestors. Some people burn real cars, real money, and real clothes. Some people burn pretend items.

Our tour guide read us a kid's story about a little boy who had sweet toots. that's gas for those of you who don't know what toots are. And his sweet toots brought him prosperity and wealth. There is so much to learn about China and their rich culture. More than we had time for in one night. We will definitely be going back. What a fun night at Cub Scouts.

4 comments:

ishybeanie said...

we must be the richest people around with all the sweet toots around out house, so funny

Joey and Nettifer said...

Yeah for going to china! I am glad that you got the tickets - that was such a fun idea. I had fun reading all the tickets Joey got for you what an adventure for those little guys! good times

Veronica said...

That sounds like so much fun! What a cool idea.

Guinevere said...

So creative...I bet those lil' cubbies love getting together each week with you as their fearless leader. I would. What a fun thing to learn about too, Chinese New Year!