Out with the Pig, In with the Rat...

Happy New Year!! Or, Year of the Rat that is. Many of you may know that
China recently celebrated Spring Festival. Starting January 7th and ending with the Lantern Festival 15 days later, Chun Jie is China’s most important holiday; and it shows! The frequent winter fog seems to swallow all the color and expression on the streets here, but not these last few weeks! The city came to life with firework stands on every corner and fruit sellers in between. This is a festival of family, friends, fireworks, and food - a lot of food!






Food and more food and more food! and Angie my roommate.

Since arriving in China, I had heard from many foreigners about this holiday and every time there was a negative reaction. I couldn’t understand why; this holiday was something I had been looking forward to since before I came to China. I thought it sounded like a blast and I wasn’t disappointed. As an outsider to the culture it can to be an irritating time where you can’t get your bike fixed and every thing costs twice as much as it should – and the two weeks of incessant banging does have a tendency to get on one’s nerves. However, if you are welcomed into a Chinese home, it is a glorious celebration full of lavish food and decorations; a feast like no other!

The Chinese are not only blessed with good food but also with hospitality. These weeks have been some of my best times since I have arrived. Unlike the Western New Year that lasts for a night with people in bed shortly after midnight, this is the major holiday for the country that is celebrated for over half a month. Every factory is closed and workers return home to their families. On December 31st this year I sat around with foreign friends and we discussed highlights from the last year. But the Chinese place the emphasis not on the past, but rather on the future. So much so, that during Spring Festival you are not allowed to sweep your house or take out the trash for fear that you might sweep out the good luck along with the dirt. Nor are you allowed to wash your hair or get it cut; in fact they recommend not using knives or scissors at all in case you ‘cut’ off a relationship. The superstitions seem to go on and on, and while many place little significance on them anymore, they are still generally observed.

The most visible part of Spring festival, however, is the fireworks. I thought that last year’s Fourth of July in my neighborhood in Eugene had a lot of fireworks, but they have nothing on China! The country that invented gunpowder certainly knows how to use it for entertainment! I don’t really know where to begin in describing it.

Days before the activities start ‘practice’ firecrackers and explosions periodically go off (not always at convenient times for sleeping!) but nothing could prepare me for the cacophony to greet the Year of Rat. If the world exploded, I don’t think that it would have been as loud! Tianjin has over 5 million people, and about half of them were lighting off fireworks at the same time! It was truly incredible! There is every kind of firework - from the giant ones in the sky to China’s famous firecracker chains that last for several minutes creating a machine gun like effect and littering the ground with red tissue paper. You can barely hear the person next to you, and if that person was me she would be shrieking every few seconds from sheer glee and genuine shock as each bundle explodes.

clean up...notice all the firecracker papers

That night I didn’t feel like an outsider. I was a part of China, with all its history and culture, superstitions and stir fry dishes. Something changed in the way that I saw this place.
Last year I came to China - this year I live in China.

Lisa's 47th jio zi - I finally got it right!