More Than Words

This is one of those days that it is really super cool to be in China.  This is the last day of Spring Festival (referred to elsewhere as Chinese New Year) which marks the end of winter and beginning of spring (Yeah, right.  It sure doesn't feel like spring to me!).  Anyway, today is known as Lantern Festival and to mark it our Ayi brought us our very own lantern.

The kids absolutely love this thing and I like the tune, it's pretty catchy.  Samuel came to visit today and when Yan Hong came to pick him up Nick started singing the song.  She looked surprised so I showed her the lantern and asked what it was they were singing about.  She said it's a Happy New Year song.

The boys had fun playing with Samuel but didn't burn off enough energy.  Since it was only -7 degrees (although very windy) we decided to bundle up and walk to Happy City.  It was a cold, brisk stroll but we finally made it.  This was the first time since we left in November that I have even been into the Carrefour mall.  The boys had some fun playing then we left Happy City for a bit to get some sushi and it was tasty.  For a while  they changed the lobster pieces and they weren't very good but now they are back to being awesome.  The kids played a little longer then Tim and Tian Ye picked us up on their way by.  I thought it was going to be a quiet evening after that.  I couldn't have been more wrong!

We arrived home at about 5:45 and almost as soon as we got in and closed the door, the fireworks started.  I know I have mentioned before that since we got home a week and a half ago there have been firecrackers or fireworks frequently throughout the day or night.  But nothing so far has compared to tonight, at least since we got back on the 27th.  Tim was around for the first night and was invited to Tian Ye's girlfriend's family home for the celebrations.  At midnight, they went outside to enjoy the fireworks.  Here's a little video he took that night.

I missed that night so I can't tell you much about it so back to tonight.

It's nothing like North America where you drive to the center of town to watch a show put on by the local firemen.  It's not even like a big city where they put on a nice show for Canada Day or New Year's.  Here, each and every family, group or business purchases their own set of fireworks to set off at some point in the evening.  And I'm not talking about a few little roman candles or a tiny pack of firecrackers.  These things are HUGE - big boxes of gorgeous fireworks and rolls of firecrackers, five or ten meters long.  One family might have the equivalent of what a small town would do for one event.  Multiply that by many thousand and what you have is an event you have to see to believe.  Without exaggerating, I have seen more fireworks in one night here than I have in all my thirty-something years put together - and I have watched the shows at Disney four or so times.  Every window, in any direction, far and near, you couldn't not see something pretty.  It is now just after 10:30 and they are still going off but I can't watch anymore because my eyes are hurting.

We started by running from one room to the next - back, front, side - then they really started to pick up and we could stay in one place to see a bunch.  For a long time we stood in the little room at the front of our apartment looking out the window to the main circle of Eastern Venice.  At one point we had a group to our right, one to our left and another in the center all shooting off two or three boxes at once.  Add to that several hundred meters of firecrackers and the only way to describe the noise is what I can imagine a war zone with heavy artillery in the middle of a hailstorm would sound like.    I wish everyone could experience this just once.  I will tell you that next year, we will be here for the entire fifteen days.  I love it!  Here is just a couple minutes of one set in the front of our building.

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!  I hope the year of the dragon is a prosperous one for all!