Spring Fest

Spring Festival is over I think. It is hard to tell for sure because they are still setting fireworks off in the morning and evening. Fireworks seem to be an integral part of life in China. You hear them at all times of the day to celebrate anything from marriages, births, store openings, some restaurants seem to set them off every night. So I am not sure but I think the main celebration is for just one week though.

Now the moon is waxing its way into the new year and I am still not sure what to make of the holiday. The New Years celebration starts the beginning of the lunar calendar, which is only used to mark traditional holidays. What I was expecting to see was a lot of organized events, but if there were any parades or shows, other than CCTV's New Years Eve Gala, than I didn't know about it.

Actually what I was looking forward to was the city to put on some big fireworks display. What happened instead; was just before midnight, everybody put on their own fireworks display. Instead of popping open a bottle of campaign; people set off fireworks then go back and eat jiaozi(dumplings) and drink jiu(alcohol) or juice. At least that is what the family I spent New Years Eve with, did. But they were from Northern China. In Southern China which starts below the Chang Jiang (Yangze) River and is where Nanjing is located, they eat something else. But I don't know what.

The one thing I do know is, after spending Spring Festival in China, the holiday seems to be a family affair and the best way to spend it is with a family. I am glad I got a chance to spent it with a family. Mainly because everything shuts down for for a week and traveling is very difficult and crowded the week before and I imagine the week after; especially the trains. It all seems a little chaotic.

Personally I think it is nice, though, for a whole nation to take a week off to be with family. Even if it is a little difficult for us ex-patriots to get along.

Though I was disappointed about not be able to see an organized fireworks show, the fireworks I did see was spectacular. Unlike in the USA where people go to a park and the fire department sets off the fireworks in a nice orchestrated fashion, in China is seem every family sets off fireworks before they eat at midnight. The fireworks they use are not small firecrackers and rocket that individuals buy in the US, these range from packs 500 to 1000 firecrackers all the way up to sophisticated multistage rockets that the fire department set off back at home.

Now you may think that this seems a little dangerous. You are right. It is like being in the middle of a colorful Hollywood battle scene. There are colorful explosions everywhere, in all directions and it goes on for hours. Now you may also be saying to yourself; that sounds a little frightening. It is, but it is also very exciting,. . . and disconcerting,. . . and loud,. . . and fun.

The air is also full of smoke. So much so that in the morning when you look out the window you think it is foggy, but it is smoke from the night before. There is also bits of paper debris everywhere. The smoke takes while to dissipate but the debris is cleaned up surprisingly quickly by the street sweepers. These are people with brooms made out of bamboo tied together; who are on every street you see in China.

So in a country that is around the same width as the United States you have tens maybe hundreds of million of household celebrating at the same time. Remember the whole country of China only has one time zone, so when it is midnight in Beijing it is midnight in Xinjiang. Also less you think that the fireworks end after one night; they are also used before breakfast and dinner, for the whole week I think.

Now I have some idea what Chinese New Year is like in China. Here is a slide show.