Spring Festival

Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

I know it's a little late- but it's better late then never! We bid goodbye to the year of the Tiger and said hello to the year of the Rabbit. 

And- boy to the Chinese know how to do New Years.

First you make and eat dumplings as a family. Also you drink together as a family. Then most of China tunes in to an 8 hour television show that showcases all of China's super stars. Then everybody and their neighbor gets highly explosive, real-deal fireworks and shoots them off. Starting from dusk until 3AM it sounded as if we were under an air raid. 

Jill and I went over to Luyin's and made dumplings. They were delicious! And Jill and I aren't half bad at making the dumplings. Then we drank some of the "best" rice-liquor….which just meant instead of just tasting like gasoline it tasted like gasoline and FIRE! We set off fireworks with Luyin and his son Jerry. We tried to stay up to watch the TV show, made it only till 11 and walked home. That's when we were inundated with fireworks in a way that I have never experienced. We ran back and got our camera's and ended up staying up till 2 AM taping the mayhem. EVERY direction we looked we were just SWAMPED with fireworks. You could walk 20 feet without somebody else shooting off fireworks. The idea behind the fireworks is that they scare off the bad spirits. But they are professional grade fireworks that you can shoot 100-150 ft in the air. And the only reason I can tell you that height is because when taking pictures from my apartment on the 10th floor they are eye level or a little higher. 

I was overwhelmed with the feeling that this was something special- this was a once in a lifetime type of experience. I was genuinely moved by it- and got a little misty eyed.

I am trying to get a hack so I can upload a video on to my blog and hopefully I can show you first hand exactly how crazy it was. 

But Happy Tudz (bunny) Year!!!

Pictures are:

Dumplings

Jerry making dumplings

Luyin holding a firework…(yes, they do that here!)

Firework outside

Firework from my apartment window!