If you didn’t already know, the Chinese New Year just began on February 18th. To be in China at midnight (Chinese New Year’s Eve) is something almost indescribable.
It is not that it is such a special or profound moment. It is just soooo loud!!!
You would not believe how much Chinese New Year makes a town sound like it is being blitzed by the Germans in WW2 or like Bagdad being bombed by the Americans in Desert Storm.
The Chinese are in love with fireworks, from the youngest to the oldest. The custom is for everyone to go outside at midnight on New Year’s Eve and to literally blow up thousands upon thousands of fireworks, everyone in his own yard, or courtyard, or in the street below his apartment, or out of his apartment window.
Now I am not talking about little toy fireworks. We are talking big fireworks, stuff that you have to have a license to handle in America, and everyone blowing up their own in every yard and on every street in town, all at the same time! Talk about a show!
It is unbelievable. You can sit in your apartment (like we were doing) and just feel the walls vibrate and here the crashing of fireworks just outside the windows and above the street below. Add in the light and fire that the fireworks give out and you can easily imagine that you were under attack like the British were in London back in World War 2.
In fact, I was going to open the window to look outside when all of a sudden fire (what was left of a firework) dropped by in the air just outside the window. We decided real quick that we had better stay indoors and away from the windows.
And the show lasts for hours! It typically starts at about 10 til midnight, then keeps going strong for at least an hour or so. After 1 a.m. it tapers down all night long until the sun comes up. Once daytime comes and people start getting up and around again, you get spurts of fireworks throughout the whole next day.
So if you ever are in China for Chinese New Year’s, you know what to expect!
Ben, I still remember the time when we were eating inside that restaurant on the 4th of July and the guys set off all of those Fireworks outside the door, and we thought somebody was shooting a machine gun. My life flashed before my eyes, I think:)
Yeah, I forgot that you and I have traveled all over this region together. And I do remember sitting in that restaurant and almost having a heart attack.
The Chinese are in love with their fireworks. They blow them up for everything … moving to a new house, buying a car, opening a new business, New Years, Birthdays, weddings, etc….