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