Chun Jie Kuai Le! (Happy Spring Festival!)

Spring Festival is known around the world as Chinese New Year. It's the lunar new year; this year is the year of the ox. People have been preparing for a couple of weeks - buying gifts, making food, putting up decorations. It feels like Christmas here; it carries an excitement that far exceeds our attempts at the Jan. 1st New Year. Kids have off school for a month, people leave the city to return to their families in the villages, shops and restaurants close up. And fireworks stands go up at every corner, where you can buy everything from cheap sparklers ($.60 a box), to Roman candles, to giant boxes of fireworks ($150 a box). 

My neighbors put mirrors above their doors (to scare away the demons), taped red banners around their doorways (for good luck), and propped up 5-meter-high stalks of sugar cane (also for good luck). Yesterday I met the very elderly lady that lives next door to me. She talked to me (in Chinese, of course) for a good 3 minutes. I understood none of what she was saying, but this didn't seem to really bother her. I nodded and smiled, and told her that I couldn't understand. But she just kept trying! At one point, I could tell she was talking about us being neighbors, so I agreed with her about that. Eventually I just wished her a happy new year. She was so excited to be talking with a foreigner - too bad I have no idea what she was talking about! 

Last night was the eve of the festival, so it was the most exciting night for fireworks. A bunch of people from KIA went over to someone's house that lives on an 11th floor to enjoy some good food and watch the fireworks. Fireworks and firecrackers started going off at about 6 in the evening and lasted steadily until about 1am. But the midnight crescendo was amazing. We had a perfect view of the city skyline, and could look out over a sea of fireworks. Fireworks were set off in parks, in courtyards, off rooftops, in the street. Anyone can purchase and set off fireworks, and everyone was. People set off firecrackers in the streets, in front of their houses, and in the stairwells of their buildings. It was fantastically loud, and absolutely beautiful. 

After a while, some people in our group decided that they also needed to set off some explosions, so they went down to the courtyard and set off fireworks. Because we were standing on the 11th floor balcony, the fireworks ended up exploding right above our heads - except for the few that didn't quite make it that high. A couple hovered at about eye level, someone would yell "DUCK!" and we'd all hit the floor. We made it through the night with no injuries though, and we ended up laughing hysterically. 

People here set off fireworks for good luck in the new year, and to scare away bad luck and evil spirits. They spend great amounts of money to try to help and protect themselves in the only way they know how. So although the show was fantastic and beautiful, it seemed tinged with a desperation to try anything might that work. And I'd love to tell these people what would really bring hope and a good future for them. But I can't even make friendly chit-chat with the sweet lady that lives across the hall from me. So for now, I'll teach the children of people who can tell others, so they can do their job. And hopefully, someday, the fireworks will be a celebration of hope, not some sort of good luck charm or bad luck talisman. They will be far more spectacular then.