For the rest of the world who follows the Gregorian calendar and celebrated New Years 27 days ago, you may have forgotten that a large number of people follow the lunisolar calendar and celebrated five days ago. This event is popularly called Chinese New Year. To the Chinese, however, it is referred to as Spring Festival.
Red and Yellow all around.
Having learned no more than a few fleeting lessons in school about Chinese New Year, I realized I knew next to nothing about it up until a few days ago. So much so, that I naively assumed it was mainly a Chinese holiday. Not until Jenny informed me that celebrations were in full swing in Thailand did I realize it was bigger than China alone. The Lunisolar New Year is celebrated in nearly all of eastern Asia, as it turns out, although the Chinese tend to take celebrations to a whole new level of crazy. Having survived my first Chinese New Year, I can attest to this.
2011 was the Year of the Rabbit, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. What does this mean? Lots of babies, no joke. On numerous occasions in the past couple days I have had my players, translator, and team doctor tell me how big of a deal the Year of the Dragon is. Several of the players proudly proclaimed that they are “dragon babies.” Excuse me, what kind of babies? Apparently dragon babies are supposed to be the strongest, smartest, and luckiest, which means many parents will be aiming to start a family by no later than March or April. The Jiangsu Dragons have six dragon babies on the team (they counted). Too bad we aren’t lucky enough to be winning any games!
Out with the Rabbit, in with the Dragon.
So how did this once-every-twelve-year occasion go down? Well, during the weeks leading up to Chinese New Year not a whole lot seemed different. Perhaps there was slightly more red and yellow throughout the city (although there is always a bunch), mostly in the form of lanterns, but daily Nanjing life seemed largely the same. That is until Chinese New Year’s Eve.
By law, everybody in China has the entire week off. If an employer requires a staff member to work during the week they must pay the employee 3x their normal wage. So, starting the day before New Year’s Eve the city began to empty out as people journeyed home to be with their families. Interestingly, because of China’s huge population, this traveling period is considered the largest human migration in the world, and because China’s population continues to grow, each successive year has surpassed the previous in sheer volume of people. Some incredible photos demonstrating the scale of this and other celebrations around southeast Asia can be seen here.
Golden wishing tree - actually a fake tree, but incredibly real looking.
For many, particularly migrant workers, this is one of only two weeks during the year when they can go home (along with the Mid-Autumn Festival in September). In Nanjing, what was left behind was an oddly serene city with wide open sidewalks and streets lacking honking horns and traffic. Of course, by mid-afternoon this peace and quiet was replaced by the Chinese’s one true love, and original creation – fireworks.
With Jenny in Thailand and some unexpected time off from basketball for me, I decided to wander around Nanjing to soak up all that New Year’s Eve had to offer. (Ironically, the eve of the Spring Festival was the coldest day I have spent in Nanjing.) Not sure where to head, I wandered to the closest cultural site I could think of, Fuzimiao Confucius Temple, in search of dragon dances and other cultural activities. What I found were closed-up shops, dangling red lanterns, small groups of freezing people, and boxes of fireworks exploding on the sidewalk, halting everyone in place until it was safe to walk again. It appears Chinese New Year is all about spending time with family, not being out and about. I’d like to think that there were traditional dragon dances in some corner of the city.
Freezing cold, I headed back to the apartment to enjoy a relaxing, quiet evening. The night turned out to be anything but quiet. From the Princess House, hearing fireworks is a daily occurrence, so much so that they largely go unnoticed. Usually they are set off for marriages, births, business openings, and other special occasions. Completely aware of the Chinese’s love of lighting explosives, I fully expected an excess of earth-shattering explosions for the New Year, especially around midnight. However, even with this knowledge, I was still shocked by what occurred.
During New Year’s Eve, the frequency of fireworks steadily increased throughout the day. By late afternoon their rumble could be heard ever 5-10 minutes. (I find the daytime fireworks quite comical since set to the backdrop of an overcast, grey sky the fireworks largely get lost high up in the air.) Once darkness came over the city, everything changed.
Starting around 6pm the fireworks began to ignite every 2-3 minutes. Caught off guard by this sudden outburst, I quickly headed outside to watch. Of course, locating fireworks in an urban setting turns out to be quite difficult since the sounds echo off all the tall buildings, making the exact direction hard to locate. Once I realized they were exploding from all corners of the city I quickly walked to the nearest historic site, the ancient Ming Dynasty City Wall, about 10 minutes away, hoping it would be the original launching point.
New Year's decorations, favorite crabapple snacks, and fireworks in the distance.
Turns out I was wrong. As I walked toward the wall I realized fireworks were being sparked right outside buildings, in apartment quads, street corners, and basically wherever else was convenient. Luckily for me though, the city wall provided one benefit – it gave me a better view of the cityscape. So, I stood alone on the top of a 600 year old wall, trying not to go deaf, and watched fireworks explode around me in the distance. By this point in the evening people were not only using the smaller fireworks, but the huge ones you would typically see during 4th of July celebrations. Pyrotechnics of all kinds can be purchased right outside the supermarkets, no special license required to set them off.
After about an hour, I headed back to the apartment. With every hour that passed the fury of fireworks continued to grow. By 11:30pm the explosions were unrelenting, with only 1-2 seconds between each boom in the distance. It literally sounded like Nanjing was being bombed! Not wanting to miss out on the increasing action, I headed back the Ming Dynasty City Wall. Perched on top, I watched as fireworks exploded in the distance and appeared from behind tall apartment buildings. The sky lit up with from all corners of the city while waves of sound rumbled and echoed in all directions. I could rotate 360-degrees and at any moment see many neon colors in the sky.
Seeing no end in sight for the celebrations, I headed back to the apartment around 1am. Amazingly I was able to fall asleep, even though they continued long into the night. I was then promptly awoken with a bang at 6am, when the fireworks resumed. The Chinese New Year lasts 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival, and so far every night there have been sporadic outburst of explosions!
Below I have included some photos and videos I took with my small camera during the craziness of New Years Eve. As usual, the camera does not do justice to the experience, but while you’re watching the videos try to focus on the sounds in the background. Every crack, fizzle, boom, pop, bang you hear is not background noise, but fireworks echoing throughout the city like thunder.
(I could not figure out how to imbed video’s in the post, so you will have to click on the individual YouTube links to view the videos. Each one offers a slightly different view of the city, so I encourage you to watch them all. They are only about 30-45 seconds each. Enjoy!)
Video 1 - http://youtu.be/4D-pEDG2ovs – near the Ming Dynasty City Wall.
Video 2 - http://youtu.be/zBKM6zyxlu0 – these fireworks seemed a bit too close for comfort so I started to quickly back away.
Video 3 - http://youtu.be/RNK3VOCLRGI – this video is taken 15-feet from the entrance to our apartment. I had to sleep through this.
Video 4 - http://youtu.be/tCK-UFV1BYY – street corner one block from the apartment.
Video 5 - http://youtu.be/LFmu5IdVIT0 - the main intersection one block from the apartment.
Video 6 - http://youtu.be/-8hXVLSpVcc – fireworks being set off from the middle of an apartment quad. Watch carefully and you can see the firework embers actually bouncing off the buildings.
Video 7 - http://youtu.be/JBYfe8LfIIk – fireworks directly next to large buildings.
Video 8 - http://youtu.be/BqlnTk8NeZM – view from the top of the Ming Dynasty City Wall.
Video 9 - http://youtu.be/HnLFfWZiXQs – teenagers playing with sparklers.
All the remains from a box of fireworks, one of the very few signs around the city not allowing fireworks, and burning fake money so it passes along to ancestors who have passed away.
Sparklers and the aftermath on sidewalks.
Ming Dynasty Wall at night and the paper mess of fireworks, left for the street sweepers to clean up.
** All photos can be clicked to view larger versions.
That was such an interesting lesson, Ian. You are right, we just don’t learn much about Chinese customs or history in school.
Hope you have some earplugs!
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