Happy New Year

I am sitting in my office at home writing this entry. It is 8:30 p.m. and the New Year’s celebration doesn’t start until another 3 ½ hours (midnight). You couldn’t tell from what I am watching outside my window.

Simply put….China loves their fireworks.

Not taking away from our men and women serving in the armed forces across the world but this place sounds like a war zone. The noise is amazing. The fireworks explosions are amazing. All this and the celebration doesn’t start until midnight.

A couple of hours ago I was sitting at my desk and this brick of fireworks went off in from of my home. I thought it was odd that it was set off in front of my home and not my neighbors (who I suspicion was behind the firecrackers). This string of firecrackers went off for 3 minutes – I timed them. After they were complete I went outside to see the remains. I quickly found out why they were set off in from of my house; because the string of firecrackers was at least 60 feet in length. The string started in front of my house, extending through his property, and well into his other neighbors frontage. There was firecracker paper all over the place.

I went to the clubhouse bar after that and was able to watch some of the private fireworks displays from the balcony. Truly amazing. Fireworks in every direction. I survived happy hour and decided to head back to the house. In the center of our complex is a bell tower. Surrounding the bell tower is a nice open area. This is where the club property wanted everyone to light the fireworks. There were two families from Taiwan there with their fireworks. They were getting ready to ignite them as I was walking by the courtyard.

Let me describe what they where going to ignite. They had three wooden crates. Each crate was 3’ x 3’ x 3’. Once you pried off the lid, inside were 100 cylindrical tubes. They started the first one by igniting the fuse and the show began. Inside this crate were the biggest, loudest, and highest fireworks I have ever seen. They were comparable to a small town’s 4th of July fireworks display. What made it the biggest and loudest is that I was standing about 50 feet from the crate and they were blowing up directly over our heads. The show was amazing – I had chills watching this. The family’s children were dancing, clapping, and singing as there were going off.

The first crate was finished. As the two men went to work on the second and third crate and funny thing developed. An American family walked up with a small bag of fireworks. Sparklers and bottle rockets. They waited while the other two men started the 2nd and 3rd crate. With two crates going at the same time, the shock value was doubled the first crate – again, simply amazing. The American family watched the entire display which lasted about 15 minutes. When it was done, I looked at the American family and watched the father slowly look into his bag and announce to the kids that they were going back to the house. Sparklers and bottle rockets were not going to cut it in this celebration.

Well it is 9:15 – I’m a slow typist (but not as slow as my brother – I’ll tell that story later). I am going to head back out to the courtyard and see what is in store.

It is hard to describe this New Year’s celebration. It is beyond my wildest expectations. China only has three holidays per year. This is one of their most traditional holidays. I will write about the tradition behind it very soon. I’ll probably write more tonight because sleep will be impossible tonight – the noise is amazing. When I look out the window all I can see is a thick haze of smoke – incredible!