No Reason Fireworks
Writing by Steven Looi on Tuesday, 15 of May , 2007 at 10:59 pm
China is known for being where gunpowder and fireworks were invented. Once you arrive here, it’s something you’ll never forget. And the locals love to remind you of that fact. Fireworks here have a multitude of uses, their not just for annual celebrations!
At first it’s cool to be in a country where fireworks/firecrackers are openly allowed. The little 8 year old kid in you wants to buy as many as possible and blow them up in various combinations and locations. And then when you find the vendors… oh my.. Vendors come out of nowhere and throw up little temporary blue stalls on the sidewalk and sell huge amounts of fireworks. The whole shed type building is filled to the brim with fireworks and smoking all around them. I remember as a kid having little packages of firecrackers that had maybe 20-30 little firecrackers. Here they come in these gigantic rolls of thousands.. They get rolled out to lengths in the meters and go off for about 3 hours! Actually like 10 minutes but hey..
Now of course the use of fireworks here is primarily for celebrating national holidays like the May day holiday or during October’s National day and of course for Chinese New Year. During these holidays the skies in the cities can be so dense with fireworks that they literally light up the sky.
At these times it seems like every single person in China has been issued a shopping cart full of fireworks and ordered to set them off now! If you had no idea about Chinese culture and were indoors you’ d think you World war 3 was upon you and China was in the middle of it. Constant explosions all around you, in the air and on the ground, people screaming (mostly laughing). This is when the fireworks are fun.
People moving into new apartments or new stores use these before moving in to ward off evil spirits, well they used to. I think now it’s just a remnant of old traditions. This tradition has stuck and people observe it almost to a fault. Walking down the street during the day you walk by a new restaurant or salon having their grand opening or groundbreaking and the firecrackers are going and its fun and interesting. But in the middle of the night and someones moving into your building and thats when it becomes a giant pain in the ass. The noise of course wakes u up and the sound turns on all the communal lights, the ones in the hallways and stuff that are sound activated. If you’re lucky you don’t sleep right by a window but if not, its lights on for you.
And then there are the no reason fireworks. These aren’t such a pain, their more like, just the background of shanghai living. They don’t seem to have any significance and are just happening. Not a week goes by where you don’t hear explosions during the day or at night. At first, yeah there disconcerting but then you get used to them and start giving them your own meaning. Fireworks -> ooh lunchtime, Fireworks -> the sun came back!, Fireworks -> yay! its Tuesday, Fireworks ->FIREWORKS!
Category: Happenings
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Comment by tom
Made Thursday, 17 of May , 2007 at 12:10 pm
i can’t wait to light stuff on fire, and make things explode.
Comment by Robin
Made Monday, 16 of July , 2007 at 1:37 pm
ahahaha,
i want a meter long roll of fireworks!!
Comment by I like travel
Made Wednesday, 31 of October , 2007 at 3:24 am
interesting China trvel.
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