Fire in the night sky

Warning: Turn your volume down to low before playing this video.

This is the view from my south/southeast facing balcony on Chinese New Year's Eve. The video doesn't really capture the horror of it all, but it's the best I can show you. This is by no means the most fireworks I have ever seen at one time. Yeah, it is even worse than this sometimes. I wish they would ban individual use of fireworks but apparently they are not going to do that in my lifetime.

Video from February 9, 2012. Time: 29 seconds.

One down, one to go

The women on the right are buying bundles of incense prior to entering the neighborhood Buddhist temple (gold building in the rear on the left side). They will burn the bundles and "pray" for good luck during the coming year. Red candles, also for sale at this table, are also burned inside the temple. Not everyone does this ritual, just some Buddhists (or people who are not Buddhists but hope to garner some kind of good luck anyway.) This temple is on my block and I can see it from my balcony.

The first week of Chinese New Year is over. One more week to go. This year's holiday hasn't seemed as chaotic as most. I think this is because:

• The holidays fell at a good time so that lots of people could travel to other places. Most of my neighbors have been gone for over a week, and I like it when it's quiet!
• It didn't rain on the actual first day of the new year, but it's a 15-day holiday and it has been raining most of the week. It's raining right now. The fire hazard from fireworks is greatly reduced when there is rain. Sure, I had my emergency evacuation kit ready by the front door the other night just in case, but I didn't have to use it.

[What exactly does one put into an emergency evacuation kit? 

For Mimi - leash, dog food, bottled water, drinking bowl, clothing in case we're stranded outside overnight and she gets cold.

For me - flashlight, money, cell phone, cell phone charger, gloves, scarf, hat, jacket, socks, earmuffs, shoes, and a change of clothes, lock box of valuables.]

Oh no you can't!

Hmm. Really? You really think this ugly guy with ear flaps like Mimi's is going to bring you money in the coming year? Uh, no. Sorry to insult your tastes in gods (the "money god"), but he's not worth the paper he's printed on. You can do so much better. There is One True God and His name is Jehovah. He can supply all your needs.

According to tradition, on midnight prior to the fifth day of the lunar new year, whomever sets off the loudest set of fireworks will win the favor of the so-called money god. So they spend all their money on fireworks. And then when they don't have money to pay their electric bill, they wonder what went wrong.

Well, some of them really believe this. But a whole lot of them are just are a little too pumped up for the holiday and set off fireworks for fun, kind of like a competition to see who can be the most obnoxious.

A buzz in the air

There's a certain electricity in the air in anticipation of the biggest holiday of the year -- not unlike what we experience at Christmas time. The snow excites the Chinese just as a white Christmas does us. Above: Chinese New Year decorations. These go on your front door, or wherever you want to put them. The Chinese character "fu" can be translated to either luck, good fortune, or blessing.

Ah yes, well if there are not enough of the real thing around, you can buy an imitation firecracker string. I definitely prefer the decorative kind to the real thing.

The woman in the green coat is choosing which decoration will look best on her door.

Trinkets and lanterns are for sale too, all in the auspicious colors of red and gold. For those unfamiliar with the word "auspicious" due to its lack of use in your common everyday vocabulary, it means "propitious." (Kind of teasing with you there...it means favorable.)

Fish offer good luck for some reason I have forgotten. Apparently two is better than one.

In southern areas of China (which is determined by the cleverly positioned Yangtze River), people eat sugar cane for the holidays. Yeah, nothing like chewing and spitting out sugar cane while you set off a bunch of firecrackers and giggle like a gaggle of pre-teen girls at a slumber party.

The streets are dangerous this week

A young man sells fireworks and other pyrotechnics on the streets. These temporary sidewalk shops are everywhere, right along where everyone walks to do shopping, and right next to the lanes of traffic. It is really dangerous.

Only 24 hours to go until Chinese New Year.

One thing I hate hate hate about Chinese New Year is the excessive fireworks. On Chinese New Year's Eve, it looks like the world has been set on fire. It sounds as if the country is being bombed. 

One year I set up a cot in the hallway for Mimi and myself, hoping it would block out some of the scary noises going on all night. 

One year a building in my apartment complex, just across from mine, had a fire when the family's stash of 'works caught fire. The fit firemen had to climb 20 flights of stairs to put it out and save the neighborhood.

On the 4th night of the holiday, when the cacophony is even worse than on CNY's eve, flaming bits of paper from my upstairs neighbors' s burning stash floats onto my balcony where I have deck chairs, baskets and big plants. I have to stay awake most of the night, running from one balcony on one side of the apartment to the other one, making sure that nothing catches fire. I try watering things down too, but that's not a good idea when it is below freezing.

It is RIDICULOUS. But people here love it and think the holiday would not be the same without it.

My mission during the first week of CNY is to protect house and doggy from disaster. Mimi is a native of this country, yet even she thinks war has broken out every year during CNY. Poor doggy.