If you thought the Chinese New Year celebrations were the biggest and most visual event of the Chinese new year, like me, you would have been mistaken.

I’ve experienced Chinese New Years in England, Brunei, Malaysia and South Africa, and they were all much larger, visually stimulating and busier than the one I experienced here in Shiyan in China. As I said in a previous post, I didn’t even see one Lion or Dragon Dance.

The Chinese New Year was much a time for people to spend with their families and, as is required (by law, I’m sure), a lot of eating was involved. Of course, to eat, you have to cook, so a lot of cooking and eating was taking place, mostly in the family’s home, out of sight.

To the common, foreign observer, the rest of the city might appear quiet. Dead, in fact. As indeed it was. Shops were closed, restaurants operated on skeleton crews for minimal hours (if at all), and only here and there a supermarket was open. Sure, in Liuyan and Wuyan there were a few people, but people aimlessly strolling the streets, perhaps looking for something to do. Further away from the city centre, the streets were deserted.

In Liuyan Square, considered to be the central focal point of the city, there were some concerts, or attempted concerts of the usual Mickey Mouse variety, kids singing English songs, old ladies with traditional dances, etc. But even the crowds here were thin.

So last night, not expecting anything other than just the last restaurant dinner of the holiday season, King and I dragged Hong Mei to Liuyan for dinner at our favourite Chinese restaurant.

It’s our favourite, because they do good Chinese food (according to our Western tastebuds), it’s cheap, and best of all we can actually order (even if we choose random items, it still ends up being delicious).

I can’t tell you the name, because I don’t know what it’s called. It’s adjacent to the McDonalds though. There are 3 restaurants in a row, next to a… er… pond. The one we like is the centre one.

So anyway, the busses were quite full, as expected, afterall, it’s the last weekend of the holiday. We sat down, and had ourselves a meal. This was around 18:30′ish and we took our time enjoying the food. Afterwards, we had the usual dillema of what to do next, not really wanting to go home. So Hong Mei said she wanted to go have a look at the Supermarket on the otherside of Liuyan Square.

Shortly before we left, we heard some fireworks being set off. Nothing unusual, as it’s being going on like this since Chinese New Year Day. But when we existed the restaurant, there were people everywhere. Now, I’ve seen many people in Shiyan, but this must have been every single person living in the city. The main road cutting from People’s Road to Zhang Wan was blocked off and completely filled with people.

This is a two-way street, comprising 3 lanes, 4 in places, in each direction. From the one side (incidentally from the one KFC in Shiyan to the other KFC) to the other, is probably about 3 kms. The entire width of the road, it’s entire lenght, the whole of Liuyan Square and all the sidewalk space available, were occupied by people. There must have been over a million bodies mulling around.

There is a term in Chinese for this: People Ocean People Mountain. And this is exactly what this was. As if the sight of this was not exciting enough, fireworks were exploding everywhere. Everywhere.

And here in China it’s no sissy cracker like the legal kind you might find in South Africa. Oh no, here you can buy quater sticks of dynamite for 1 Yuan each, the type that will sever your hand from your body with one mighty bang. Don’t bother looking for the severed appendix either, there won’t be much left.

Explosions in this crowd, everywhere, it surprised me that I only saw one Ambulance all night. Fireworks in the sky, exploding like in proffesional pyro-technique shows. Little kids with what they call fire-flowers, a long tube that you’re supposed to point up to the sky and it spits little balls of fire which explodes maybe 5 meters up. Little kids don’t always point it up though.

Hong Mei had left us earlier in the night, and King and I was so shell-shocked that we stood on the steps of a building, under cover with a view of the main events. People were throwing those quater sticks of dynamite around. I was really scared it would hit me, as they thought it funny to fling it at foreigners. One landed near a parked car, and when it went of literally shook the car. Car alarms were going off everywhere.

Where we were standing happened to be the exit to The Restaurant. We stood there past closing time, and soon the staff started pouring out. I greeted a few who spotted us. Soon, Lara appeared. “Helloooo”, she sang a greeting. “Oh, hi”, I said as I briefly turned around to look at her before I turned back.

A few days earlier she had caught up with King and I, and in his presence said she would call me that evening to go out with her. She never did. Neither did she the following days. I wasn’t in the mood for any pleasantries, so I ignored her. She got the message and walked off into the crowds. The last time, it would turn out, that I would see her as such.

Eventually the mulling crowds all started drifting in the same direction, which was the direction our home was in, so we decided to join. With sparks raining from everywhere, I was constantly looking around me. I was wearing my down feather jacket, and the only thing on my mind was feathers-and-plastic, feathers-and-plastic. I unzipped my jacket, just incase I needed to get it off in a hurry.

Eventually we cleared the crowds as it thinned out around Wuyan. We walked home, all the way dodging more fireworks, sparks, explosions, the like. It was good to get back to our quiet neighbourhood where the bangs were only heard from a distance.

This night was the Chinese Lantern Festival. There are as many stories about it’s origin as there are listings in the Google Directory.

The facts are clear though. It’s celebrated on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese Calander. As the Chinese Calendar is lunar, and the new year starts on the day of the new moon, this festival falls on the first full moon of Chinese New Year, and also marks the end of celebrations for the Chinese New Year (school starts again tomorrow).

In bigger cities, it is alledged that there are many displays of beautiful lanterns. For this there are many reasons, such as keeping away bad spirits, ligting the path for Buddah, using it for mating games as this is also considered the Chinese Valentines day. All are, as far as I could tell, folk-tales though, as I couldn’t find two sources with the same story.

In Shiyan, there were only a few kids with plastic, battery operated lanterns, and then tons of fireworks. No lantern displays.

It’s also a day for family, although I’m sure this went down during the day, as all families were in the road during the night. It is a custom to eat Yuan Xiao. Oh, in Chinese this festival is called Yuan Xiao Jie.

Yuan Xiao is what they call the delicasy that everyone eats on this day. It’s made of white sticky rice and has a usually sweet stuffing. It symolises the full moon, as it’s perfectly round and white, and the sticky rice symbolises family unity and reunion.

One story I read was that in one of the Emperor’s Palaces, there was a maid called Yuan Xiao who made these little balls, and the balls where named after her, and the festival were named after the balls. I can’t prove this though.

So anyway, this festival, in visual impressiveness and amount of people on the street, was far superior to the celebrations of Chinese New Year.

I think next year I will avoid wearing plastic and feathers on this day.

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