Chinese New Year & Firecrackers

Bouncing off the lovely Cosima's recent post and one by my friend, Patrick... (plus he sent an IM greeting to me this morning)... I thought I'd post a little about Chinese New Year. At least my own memories of the holiday as I was growing up in Malaysia.

Somewhat related to the post before this one... it always impressed me that one of the customs was a New Year's Eve dinner with the family. The idea was that all accusations, quarrels and debts be settled on that night so the new year starts fresh... on a clean slate. Over time I had been privileged to have been invited as a "special guest" to a few of these dinners. (Usually a private family affair.)

At one especially... the dinner was ordered not to start until the quarreling siblings settled their issues outside the house. (They had both sat at the table with scowls on their faces earlier.) I remember hearing raised voices as a light and party atmosphere ensued inside. After 20 minutes or so... the siblings entered, apologised to the parents for holding up dinner, poured tea for each other and all was well with the world again... and dinner could start. Not saying that this is how it is conducted at every home but I was impressed with how it was conducted at this one.

Growing up when a ban on Firecrackers had not yet been imposed was a lot of fun. Long strings of firecrackers would hang from the second floor of shophouses in certain sectors of town and there seemed to be a never ending din of explosions. Usually a lion or dragon dance would also be performed in front of the businesses to ensure prosperity for the coming year as the crackers went off. At the end of the dance... the lion or dragon would stretch up and collect it's packet of money that was perched high. Businesses across the street from each other would try to out do each other and soon the street would be carpeted with red paper as a result of all the firecrackers exploding. (The most impressive I remember seeing was a string so long it had to be "looped" to hang up at least 5 times.) The one lasting impression that is burned into my memory of this is riding in a bus through a red covered street with firecrackers going off on both sides of the window. I'm pretty sure that year the "kwai" (devils) of bad luck stayed far away.

Then there was the joy of buying firecrackers and playing with them as a kid. All the reports of people blowing their digits off never stopped us. (I never blew my digits off but did suffer flash burns on several occasions.) One of the favorite things to do was to light one under a can to see how high it would fly. (yeah, there was an element of gambling involved in this.) The other was throwing firecrackers in a monsoon drain just to get that great loud echo sound. The other (and this involved real skill) was tossing lit ones into a pond to make the water explode. It was all in the timing because if you threw it too early... it would just fizzle out. The other was to cut open the firecrackers with a razorblade and light the powder just for the flash! Thinking back... boy, it was a dangerous childhood I lived through! LOL! Though I wouldn't change a thing about it.

This is the year of the Pig... may it be a year of prosperity for one and all! Click here to find out how your animal sign will do this year.

YAAAAAAAM SEEENG!