Chinese New Year's Eve

War zone. Last night was the closest thing to what I can imagine a war zone sounding like. Although they were sporadically being set off throughout the day, the firework frequency really picked up around 6:30. Because I was having friends over to celebrate Chinese New Year, I had to walk to a nearby restaurant to pick up food. Every street that I walked on had people setting off fireworks. You could really feel the festive spirit when walking into the local fruit store, for example.

As the night worked it's way towards midnight, the war zone started heating up. The flashes and bangs outside became so loud that our conversation at the dinner table was interrupted, so we went upstairs to the room that had a great panoramic view. For about 30 minutes, our eyes were glued to the window as the Shanghai skyline lighted up with fireworks. I've never seen anything like it--4th of July celebrations can't hold a firework to how the Chinese celebrate New Year. The moment was truly amazing to witness!

Now, one would think the city's firework supplies would be thoroughly depleted after the display we saw at midnight, yet people continued to set them off all morning. Seriously, I awoke at 7 am to the sound of fireworks going off. Throughout the day on Monday, you could hear fireworks and firecrackers randomly going off, and this is supposed to continue all week! The story behind the celebrations is basically that the smoke and loud noise is supposed to scare away evil spirits. So, people, especially businesses, will use lots of fireworks so that they will have good luck in the new year.