January, 23rd of last week was officially the 1st day of the Chinese New Year: The Year of the Dragon. For this splendid occasion, Nikolai and I decided to get the heck out of Dodge, as they say, and head to Thailand. I will post soon about our trip to the Land of Smiles, but I had to share some insight and a short story of our first exposure to the biggest celebration on the Chinese calendar. To start off, Chinese people like fireworks.
No, I take that back. Chinese people LOVE fireworks and the New Year is a perfect time for many of them to demonstrate and express this love. Fire works were traditionally used to scare away evil spirits and to bring good luck to one and one's loved ones in the new year. There are many more traditions that come along with the new year, like lanterns, large feasts and family gatherings. If you are interested, you can go to Wikipedia to learn more about it. That is, if its English version is still up and running. ;)
Because Nikolai and I were in Thailand until the 27th, we thought we would miss much of the loud celebration and crowds. Now, the crowds we did miss. Most Chinese tend to take trains to travel home to see their families, so the airport and the metro system were not crowded at all - comparatively speaking - the day we came home. We even got a seat on the metro!
The fireworks, however, were a different story.
As I am typing this I have heard at least 4 separate, eardrum-rattling rounds of fireworks go off in 4 different locations. I think I might be a bit delusional, but I feel like each one was slightly louder than the last! Oh...make that 5 now, another one just started.
Now, my image of fireworks comes mostly from all my years of either sitting on the roof of my parents' house or along the lake in Forest Lake, Minnesota on the Fourth Of July. There would be a flash of brilliant colors in the sky, mostly in the shapes of weeping willows, and then a loud BANG! People would OooOoo and AHhhh at each explosion, eagerly anticipating the next. However, the whole thing was not over until the Grand Finale, where they would send up about 2 or 3 dozen fireworks in a matter of 15 seconds or so. Reds, whites and blues with a smattering of yellows, greens and the coveted sparkly gold ones would light up the sky like it was midday. We would then all clap and cheer and compare this year's finale to years past and wait again until the next 4th of July (or at least the State Fair) to see them again.
In China, it is about 2 weeks of constant Grand Finales, only about half of the fireworks are actually the pretty ones you can see. Most of them are just loud! Don't get me wrong, they are quite beautiful. I even remember the beautiful colors of the ones we saw on our first night back in China as I was looking out our dining room window. But now, they are just loud!
(By the way we are up to 6...and these ones are the colorful AND loud ones)
So, now for the quick story.
As I have said, Chinese people love fireworks. Young, old, men and women, they love them. I did however, happen upon the one young girl in China who might not like fireworks anymore. As Nikolai and I were taking a walk along a lake near our apartment we heard these loud POP! POP! POP! noises coming from the path in front of us. We noticed the noise was coming from a group of 3 people (a father, a 4 or 5 year old girl and what we assumed was her grandmother). POP! POP! POP! They were really loud now and sounded like those little rock pops that people would through during parades at the feet of the marching band. Strangely, it seemed as if they were coming from the ground near the feet of the little girl.
I watched for a moment to assess the situation and then I stepped back in shock. The grandmother had a pocket full of those "poppers" and was throwing them at the feet of her granddaughter. "Bu Hao! Bu Hao! Ting! Ting!", the little girl giggled/screamed. The grandmother threw in a few pump fakes and then continued to throw them, laughing as her granddaughter danced around to avoid them. She then reached in her pocket for more.
Just another day in China.
(Note: As I was typing, rounds 7, 8 & 9 of fireworks went off...oh wait...make that 10.)
