February 8, 2005

The Chinese people believe that you light firecrackers and the loud “bang” will ward off evil spirits and bring you good luck for the coming year. Since our western Christmas and New Year’s Eve in January, firecrackers have been heard intermittently any time of the day or night. I have seen people light firecrackers in galvanized buckets on street corners during the day. And the night sky will light up with actual firework displays throughout the city at any time. This is a normal occurrence. But I was not prepared for what happened on their New Year’s Eve…………February 8th this year according to the Lunar Calendar.

Tuesday evening was New Year’s Eve and the beginning of Spring Festival which lasts for three days. Families travel across country to be together and honour their ancestors by visiting their graves and lighting incense.

The train system predicted moving over 40 million people during the holidays! We were advised that even though we have nine days off it would be a nightmare to travel anywhere outside the city. So most of us just stayed put. Jurgen was more adventurous and off to Shanghai to visit a friend. Maureen and Gary took an overnight trip to a neighbouring city but returned the next day. The weather is cold, damp and raining off and on so sightseeing was not a pleasant experience.

Wayne & Emily have the largest apartment………well, largest living room room I should say, and they once again invited everyone for dinner and a New Year’s Eve party. Emily made an excellent Indonesian chicken soup, fried dumplings and salad. We all overindulged as usual! The beer and wine was flowing and the company was good. Ashley’s Dad and friend, Mark were still visiting from up north somewhere and they joined us as well.

ChiChi loves to play photographer and with digital cameras it's easy to say go ahead, take some pictures knowing you can delete the ones of the ceiling and floor later on. She did a pretty good job and proceeded to take at least one picture of everyone there albeit some are a little cutoff. After quite a few glasses of wine, I'm sure she did a better job than I would have! Here's a photogallery of the guest list: Ashley & his Dad, Doug, Wayne & Emilie, Kim, Heather & Marrie, Bella, Maureen, Heather & Mark, Grace, Wyatt, and myself. Then she got more creative and wanted Ashley to wear her pink head ornament, then Doug doing the same while she wore a hat. They call her The ChiChi Monster and she loves it. After a while she got bored with that and tried her hand at a computer game called Glynx.

The firecrackers had been going off all day and the night before. People who have been here other years said wait til midnight – you won’t believe the sound. At ten minutes to twelve we hiked ourselves upstairs 26 floors to the rooftop. Well, we did use the elevator in spite of the fact that one of them had crashed down from the 24th floor three weeks ago. (Fortunately there was no one in it – or so I presume – I heard the crash and there was no screaming.)

The sound and smoke were unbelievable as fireworks lit up the sky and firecrackers went off all over the city. Visibility was limited due to the smoke and paper in the air. It was a continuous Bang! Bang! Bang! for over an hour – nonstop! After taking some pictures and videos Heather, Mark, Bella and I went down to the street level. The floor of the lobby was covered in red paper from the fireworks that had been lit there. Families were lined up on the street with their own individual boxes of fireworks that come pre-packaged. These are not your lame backyard fireworks. They are the sizzlers and bangers that go straight up and explode into bursts of colours. And yes, children light them! Bits of white paper filled the air like snow falling. It was an experience I will never forget.

The banging and noise continues as I write the next day evening at 9 pm. It has been going off and on all day and it continues.............. Someone above us lit firecrackers on their balcony at one point and I thought we were under siege. Apparently this will go on for the next three days………………….I only have one word to describe these people: PYROMANIACS!