Snap, Crackle Boom!
There is nothing more breathtakingly intense, mind numbingly loud or outrageously dangerous than 1.4 BILLION people playing with tightly packed gun powder at the exact same moment.
Chinese New Year is a holiday that engages the senses. It is deeply rich in traditions that have evolved and adapted over thousands of years. Dumplings with money inside, bright red underwear, red lanterns, red envelopes (also with money inside), holiday songs and delicious food (Google it) all mark the season. Families that have been scattered around the nation by a new hope for better jobs and better lives go home for the holidays in droves. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins (referred to as brothers and sisters) fill apartments far to small to hold them all. Children running rampant, holiday feasts, games, music . . . it is loud and exciting, thoroughly enjoyable chaos. Then, at midnight, on the lunar New Year . . . China explodes.
Fireworks, on Chinese New Year, are impossible to explain. It's actually two weeks of virtually non-stop, day and night booms but midnight it like nothing I have ever experienced. There are some laws about fireworks but I really can't imagine what they are. Thousands of people in each community bring out box after box filled with numerous cardboard cannons. The sky lights up, the air reeks of gunpowder, the whole city shakes and the noise is deafening. I love it.
Here are some pics we've gotten over the past three Chinese New Years.
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Gunpowder and fireworks were invented in China and it remains the largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks in the world. Which makes sense since they are the largest manufacturer and exporter of everything else in the world too. |
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Every neighborhood has a stand like this one where you can load up on everything from spinners and sparklers to boxes the size of your washing machine. Fireworks are big business in China. |
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Big show leaves a big mess but by 9 am the next morning all that is left are a few burn marks on the concrete. |
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| Beautiful! |
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