Chinese New Year

The sky is filled with smoke tonight, the last night of the 15-day long Chinese New Year holiday. It is marked by the first full moon of the new year and celebrated by a special Lantern Festival. Everywhere you turn and everywhere you look, there are bursts of light and fire from the firecrackers and fireworks that is exploding throughout the city. Cascading streaks of bright, colorful sparks are vsible from my window. Right outside my apartment building, in and by the man-made lake in my complex, people are lighting fireworks. Visually, it is spectacular. Even though it cannot rival the professionally orchestrated firework displays for things like July 4th, how often does one come within inches of live fireworks? However, the loud crack and pop make it sound like Beijing is being beseiged by bombs. It is a bit eerie and disconcerting.

After I came back from India, I felt a slight twinge of regret for not spending Chinese New Year in a country that actually celebrates it since I am living in Asia this year. It's the most important holiday for the Chinese. But the explosion of the fireworks, reminded me of Chinese New Year as a little girl in Taiwan. I remember disliking the loud, inescapable explosion of firecracker that drowned out everything. In China, there is 15 days of fireworks. If I remember correctly, the loud noise is supposed to scare bad spirits away so you can have a good year to look forward to. The noise was a minor nusance over the past few days. Tonight, the sound is so loud and persistent that you just can't ignore it. No wonder people try to escape China during Chinese New Year. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like during Chinese New Year's eve. It must have been even worse.

Since it is the first full moon, the tradition is to eat little round dumplings with sweet fillings inside to celebrate. I feel like most Chinese holidays are accompanied by a specific food or foods that you are supposed to eat. We had the dumplings in the office today. Before Chinese New Year, I was told that it was a tradition to make and eat regular meat-filled crescent-shaped dumplings, so we made dumplings in the office. During mid-Autumn festival, the office gave everyone mooncakes per local customs. There is also another holiday where you are supposed to eat bamboo-leaf wrapped rice balls stuffed with meat. I thought it was great that the office provided these foods for everyone since it introduces the foreigners in the office to things that we might not have known about or could not make on our own.

It will be a sleepless night with all this ruckus. It's been going on since dusk and show no sign of relenting. Or does it all just magically end at the stroke of midnight?