新年快乐!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Joining the throngs of festive feeling Chinese folk, Rambo2, Seamus and myself headed off to spend CNY with Miki's relatives. Red envelopes, beer, food, more food and fireworks were all on the menu, all of which was recieved, consumed or set on fire with titanic ghusto.

seamus, miki, me and miki's grandma

I mentioned before how fireworks of any shape or size, save the crappy little indoor kind, were banned until a few years ago in little Norn Irun. As kids in Omagh we had to make do with jam jars and petrol. Every now and again a fabled French Banger would emerge in the possession of a friend, prompting heated debates about how it should be used. More petrol was usually enlisted. Anyway, my point is this childhood of virtual boomstick poverty was a world away from what goes on in every city, town, village, hamlet and home in China - The New Year is met not just with a bang, but with a billion small explosions. People start stockpiling fireworks weeks beforehand and the entire holiday is punctuated with booms, pops and man made thunder - even as I sit here writing, one day after New Years, it still sounds like the Tet offensive outside.

When 12 midnight on New Years Eve rolled round, Miki's dad led us downstairs to a storage room that was FULL from top to bottom with boxes and boxes of fireworks. After a day of drinking round at Miki's gran's house, it was perhaps one of the most beautiful sights ever. We carried half the boxes outside to where everyone else was gathered, letting off their own. Here's a live action shot:

And here, via a link to youtube (I tried embedding it here. Tried and failed), is a wee vid of what it was like outside my apartment block - Just imagine it in complete 360 degree ear drum shattering glory. And word has it this wasn't even the biggest night for fireworks! Apparently the 5th day of Chinese New Year is much bigger. Don't have a clue why though. Hopefully my hearing will have fully returned by then...

新年快乐!!