Chun Jie Kuai Le (Part III: Fireworks)

As stated in my previous post, Chinese New Year just would not be quite the festival it is without the presence of fireworks. Firecrackers play a pivotal role in scaring away 'Nian,' which is important in order to secure New Year's blessings for the home. However, fireworks also consist of 'li hua.' 'Li' is the first character in the word 'li wu' (gift) and 'hua' means flower. Therefore, 'li hua' can be considered a floral gift. In other words, 'li hua' consist of those large ariel displays that burst open like colored flowers. These, along with an assortment of other colorful offerings, create the nighttime color associated with the celebration of Chun Jie.Kim and her husband found it difficult to say no once their son, Ding Ding, started the festivities with a few sparklers. He quickly graduated to more spectacular items. This Roman candle provided just the bang for which he was looking. Now the Chinese, Roman candles, much like their firecrackers, cannot be compared to those wimpy foot-and-a-half long tubes with which I grew up. The one Ding Ding holds is nearly as tall as he is and it shot approximately twenty flaming, colored balls. It even had a little bit of a kick to it. Just like the firecrackers and sparklers, these items were launched from inside the building. From the twelfth floor, colored balls of fire exploded out of Ding Ding's hands.
Just so you can believe me about the fireworks and where some of them found their launching points, this phot shows another Roman candle being shot from the seventh floor of a neighboring building. In the bottom, righthand corner of the picture, a small spark gives evidence that others, outside the apartment, were also lighting off a variety of fireworks. The reason I mention this is because, at one point, we needed to remind Ding Ding that he must aim his candle into the sky. He had been shooting flaming balls toward the cars in the picture. His mother and father were noticeably mortified. Once the correction had been made, everything returned to a 'safe' environment. . .at least by China standards.
Here is a shot of the really warzone. As those of you who have been in combat know, fireworks really cannot do the sounds of battle much justice. Jasmine, who grew up in Yemen, and has experienced the unrest of the Middle East, assured us that war sounds noticeably different. However, this picture only shows one corner of a large playground. Each side of the play area was lined with people, all shooting their fireworks toward the center of the square, or more precisely, toward the opposite side of the square. Therefore, it did become somewhat of a warzone. Even I managed to inadvertently hit an adult male with a bottle rocket. The strange thing was that no one seemed scared by the whole melee of fire. Boys ran to and fro through the barrage collecting expended items. While I enjoyed all of the lights, the smoke, and the explosions, I think my favorites were the loud bangs that produced a shower of confetti. By the time we left for home, large piles of confetti created firey rings in the middle of the playground.
The above picture is an example of 'li hua.' Picture this: Two adult males (Chinese males, but adult males nonetheless) drag a large box toward the center of the playground. The box measures approximately two-and-a-half to three feet tall, by two feet wide and deep. One man walks slowly back to the side of the square, while the other man squats down next to the box with a lighter. The second man hurriedly backs away from the large box, and a moment latter, the first of nearly five consecutive minutes of large 'li hua' emits from the container. I have never seen the size and power of fireworks for retail like I saw during Chun Jie. I stood and watched outside a hotel as the hotel lit firecrackers to scare away 'Nian.' The firecrackers literally went on for about five minutes. That was one strand of firecrackers. The box they had been housed in prior to ignition was enormous. I got to the point where no explosion, no matter how close, startled me in the least.

I mentioned that 'Nian' is a monster, not a dragon. In fact, dragons are the symbol of the emporer. Therefore, dragons are noble, powerful animals, but not monsters. Similarly, the Phoenix is the symbol of the Empress. This beautiful bird drives away evil with its song, can heal with its tears, and finds rebirth from its own ashes (the Phoenix bursts into flames as it nears death). In the above photo, a silver Phoenix is illuminated by the fireworks exploding in a park southwest of my apartment. Some fireworks can be seen in the background, but they do not do justice the the constant barrage of sound and light taking place within the park.

As a young boys living in Elkorn, Nebraska, my twin brother, Robert, and I used to ride our bicycles three miles one way to the next town, Waterloo, on a daily basis just to buy fireworks. The Douglas County Post-Gazette even printed a front page article about our daily travels. We wasted paper route money for anything we could get our hands on; then we pedaled the three miles back home to light our mini-arsenal. When that article first appeared in the newspaper rack, we thought for sure we were dead, that our mother and father would discipline us for wasting our money. However, when my mother finally saw the paper, she looked at us in astonishment and told us how dangerous Maple street (the one leading to Waterloo) could be. Over twenty years later, she would probably be appalled at the danger of Chun Jie fireworks, but you should see the faces of the young boys running around through the bursting and fading light of a shower of 'li hua.'