CNY: The Fireworks

“Boom”

“Bang”

“Bam”

The sounds of Chinese New Years 2010.  It is insane the amount of noise these small stature people can create.  This is the sounds assaulting my ears for the past several days and I am beginning to go a little nuts.  Have I always had a twitch in my left eye?  Why does it only happen when a I hear the “BOOM” of a firework. 

Fireworks start in full earnest about 10 minutes to midnight on New Years Eve. It has been explained that fireworks are used to chase the bad spirits away from your home/neighborhood.

Honestly, fireworks go off here several times a day.  Most days of the week I am awoken around 6am to the sounds of your basic fireworks…bang, bang, bang. These are people announcing that they are starting a new job, school, baby born in the night, went poo for the first time in several days.  You do fireworks the day you move into a new apartment to chase away bad things and make the home welcoming for your family.  The only thing they don’t seem to acknowledge with fireworks is the passing of a loved one.  That is done by burning ceremonial money and the clothing of the deceased for them to use in the “Land of the Ancestors”.

This year the weather add an interesting element to the festivities.  SNOW.  Our community may get a light dusting of snow but this was more then a dusting.  As we sat in front of the wall of windows in Catherine’s apartment on the 19th floor to watch the fireworks going off all over the city of Nanjing, we were treated to the bonus of watching a couple inches of snow fall in less then an hour.  Unfortunately add a big snow to all the smoke of the fireworks and you get very little visibility.  Not that it deterred the people out lighting to fireworks.  That continued throughout the night.  Anyone that has watched CNN coverage of the first few days of the bombings in Iraq, well, that is what it sounds like, all rolled into one night. 

I cannot tell you how seriously they take this…..I can tell you that I am 72 hours into a 15 day festival and I just had to take a Xanax to keep me from flinching every 7 or so minutes.

Chinese New Year 2010: Lion Dance

Chinese New Year (CNY) follows the Lunar Calendar which is why it does coordinate with the Western (Jan.1) New Year.  It also begins the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival in China and most of Asia.

This is the BIGGEST holiday on the Chinese calendar and the weeks prior are just as important and hectic as the actual holiday. 

You have to go buy new clothes, preferably something red.  New shoes, for us ladies a nice 4” heel. New linens, towel, pillow all on my must do list.  Oops, almost forget – must move before the festival, got the be settled so we can blow up our fireworks and new neighbors.  Haircut, got to get that done because if I don’t then I will have to wait at least 30 days or something bad is going to happen to my Uncle.  If I have enough money, I need to check into hotel to take my hot shower so I am SHINY and FRESH for the New Year.  

Many employers host pre-holiday dinners for their management teams and lower level employees receive some form of money or gift. Money is presented in the “RED ENVELOPE”.  There are rules to red envelope as a gift.  You are only  supposed to present it to staff, children or unmarried relatives/friends.  I don’t get the last one because wedding gifts are presented in the red envelope too.  Who am I to question a culture century's older then my own?

Our official CNY events started at the Jingsley Sheraton.  My friend, Bill and I call her, “our sister” Catherine is the GM of the property and invited us to watch the Lion Dancers perform.  This is a annual tradition to have the dance done throughout your business to bring in good fortune to your company. 

The dancers, in this performance there were two along with two drummers, start in the lobby and do a dance of welcome.  The Lions are always Red and Gold.  These are the two colors of wealth, prosperity and good fortune. 

The dancers are more acrobats then dancers as it takes two performers per Lion.  They do a series of jumps, rolls and bows.  This year the Lions narrowed in on Bill and Catherine and did a little in your face “good luck and Happy New Year.” I am really glad to be on the opposite side of the  room taking pictures. 

The dancers then do a routine where a stick holding a head of cabbage or a green leafy vegetable is dangled from a stick and they have to grab the cabbage with their mouths and eat the cabbage.  Cabbage is more symbolism of wealth and prosperity. Bill was the stick holder as he stretched over the second floor railing to reach the dancers.  Luck held out and he didn’t fall over…so it must work.  Right?

Next:  Fireworks….