It’s that time of the year again, the Spring Festival, a time for celebrations and family. While I have been living in China for quite some time and the Spring Festival has become more and more familiar to me each year, I think the most exciting year for me would have to have been the first time I experienced Spring Festival. I wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, but it’s a night that turned out to be an unforgettable experience.
As an American looking back, I think probably the most exciting and fun thing about the Spring Festival for me would be playing with the fireworks. I can still remember when I was young and we would celebrate Independence Day in the U.S., we would always play with fireworks as the sky became dark. Unfortunately, after a few years playing with fireworks was banned in my city, and in many other places across the U.S. since the risk of fire is too great. While this was for the good of the community and increased safety, it also took away one of the most exciting and representative parts of our National Day. Luckily, however, China’s tradition of fireworks lives on.
While the symbolism of the Chinese use of fireworks during the Spring Festival is different (being used as a means to ward off evil spirits), it doesn’t mean playing with them are any less fun. On the contrary, I think the fireworks available in China are much bigger and more impressive than anything found in the U.S., which makes sense given that China is the birthplace of fireworks. During that first Spring Festival in China I remember noticing the fireworks shops popping up around the city, but I didn’t pay much attention to them. Then, on New Year’s Eve we stopped at one on the way to my wife’s family celebration (she is Chinese), I was both surprised and awed by the vast selection they had, and maybe I went a little crazy, spending a few hundred RMB on that night’s entertainment.
After loading up the trunk of our car, we continued on to my wife’s parents house where we would celebrate. As many have said before, the focus of Spring Festival is spending time with family, and in that respect it is very similar with Christmas in the U.S. It was very relaxed and comfortable, enjoying a nice meal together and chatting. The food of course was great, and it was very interesting to experience all of the unique Chinese traditions related to Spring Festival for the first time. However, maybe it’s just me, or maybe there are others that share my feeling, but I kept looking back at my pile of fireworks near the door, then checking my watch to see how much longer until midnight. These fireworks needed to be set off!
Finally it was approaching midnight and we went outside to prepare. I could hear other fireworks exploding in the distance, and that’s when I realized there are others out there just as excited as me. As midnight got closer the sights and sounds of the fireworks became more and more intense. We all took turns lighting up the different fireworks we had, saving the biggest and best for last. The whole sky was filled with explosions, so many that one might think they are in the middle of a war. But in reality it is a war, a war with all those evil spirits which need to be driven away. This was a war we continued to fight until there were no more fireworks left. While that was a sad realization, I immediately became happy again since my wife told me we could keep playing with fireworks for the next two weeks.
Of course, after the fireworks there was still a lot of celebrating to do, not only that night, but over the next few days, spending more time with different family members. It was nice to see that people everywhere are largely the same, taking joy in the same things and sharing similar traditions, Christmas and Spring Festival are very similar in these respects. But I think maybe the biggest difference when compared with Christmas, at least in my experience, is that Christmas usually lasts only a day or two, but Spring Festival lasts two weeks, plenty of vacation time to spend with your loved ones.