Sunday morning, I awoke to the sound of a car alarm and explosives. The celebration for the Chinese New Year had begun and the exorcism of demons through fireworks was well underway. All of a sudden there were big stalls set up on corners that from afar look like street food and the closer you got you realize they were selling fireworks! The tradition of setting off fireworks literally anywhere and everywhere for two weeks straight strikes me as the manliest tradition I have come across since the Finnish sport of Wife Carrying, (a man carries his wife through an obstacle course and the prize is her weight in beer.) the only women I have seen holding any fireworks are those selling them.
As far as the eye can see there are the most stunning firework displays I have ever seen, non stop. Sure, I have experienced Canada Day in Ottawa, New Years in London, Fourth of July in Chicago but those displays last twenty to thirty minutes at the most. Here anyone can buy fireworks and set them off anywhere. I look out my window and see guys just holding them in their hands with big grins watching the sparks fly as they shoot it into the air. I feel jaded after the last 36 hours of fireworks, I can hear the whiz of the 'good ones' and maybe I will look out the window, I also know the loudest ones are the least impressive.
Last year I didn't even want to go to the display in London for New Years. I thought, Really what innovations have they done in fireworks? Is it really worth my time with all those people? In Beijing I have seen the future, (technically I am in the future due to the time difference but I will keep at a metaphoric level) they are purple and gold with fabulous shapes, like balloons filled with stardust glittering across the sky. I won`t post a picture because no camera could do it justice! In a city where there are no stars due to insufferable pollution, two weeks of the year the sky is filled with an utter spectacle of beauty like nothing I have ever seen before.
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