What do rats, monsters and car alarms have in common?

Chinese New Year!!

This year was my first time to celebrate CNY and it was beyond expectation! I spent both CNY Eve and day with students and their families, which included mostly eating.

There are so many things to tell about CNY, I'm unsure where to start. Let's start with the monster...
Legend says that a monster named Nian (which means "year" in Chinese) will come down from his mountainside home on CNY Eve to feed on humans. Obviously, humans don't want to be fed upon so they discovered that loud, booming noises and the color red would scare Nian away. The story says that Nian especially likes to hunt people who are born in the zodiac year that is approaching - this being the year of the rat. So, people who are "rats" will deck themselves out in red to be sure that they are protected on CNY Eve - red shirts, pants, socks...even down to the red underwear or bra. Also, every home puts up red paper cuttings on their windows and doors to be sure that Nian won't enter their household. In the pictures below you can see my student/friend, Audrey, putting up paper cuttings on her window. The other picture shows a decorated door (although these people still have the pigs up from last year...hmmm...) A friend of mine pointed out that this particular way of arranging the 3 panels along the sides and top of the door bears a striking resemblance to Passover and how blood was smeared on the door frames to keep the Angel of Death away from the first-born sons of the Israelites.



The second part of keeping Nian away was with loud noises, today known as fireworks. I can tell you, and others can tell you the craziness of the fireworks here in China, but you will never know the true extent until you experience it yourself. Let me try to describe it... I got back to Tianjin on Sunday, the 3rd...CNY starts on the 6th. I left my apartment at one point that day and felt the need to duck for cover as I was sure I was being shot at! Little did I know that this was just the beginning of the firework frenzy that was still to come. Fireworks went off steadily until the evening of the 6th when they really started to pick up but the real fun came at midnight! I went out onto my porch and was utterly amazed by the display of fireworks happening around me. Some of my friends and I decided it was like being in a colorful war-zone in the middle of a thunderstorm. I wanted to see what was happening on the streets so I dragged a neighbor out with me and we walked around for a while. Throughout the streets there are large tables with fireworks being sold and the thing about these fireworks is that they are not just little firework snakes or sparklers like we would set-off in the U.S. They are full-blown 4th of July fireworks and everyone is setting them off wherever they please...in the middle of the street, in between buildings, I even saw some people on the roof of an apartment complex launching fireworks into the air. Not only is it thunderously loud because of fireworks going off in every direction but the fireworks are so loud that they set off car alarms. The owners of the cars are not always to be found so the alarms keep going and going and going, just adding to the noise chaos. It is truly a sight to be seen and every little pyro's dream come true...

I have heard that the fireworks will continue for the next few weeks...yep, I can hear them in the distance as I write this...the Chinese know how to celebrate!

Check out the video below...if you look closely towards the ground you can see that these are being shot off less than a block from where I'm standing. Also, in perfect timing the car alarm next to me started sounding almost as soon as I started taking the video - this was taken at about 12:45 in the morning.



Sorry this post was so long but I just had to share all of these things with you - it's so interesting! Check out these last two pictures - the first one is a table selling fireworks and the second is the aftermath of the midnight celebration.



Chun Jie Kuai Le or Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year) Everyone!!