Jen in China: Spring Festival - The Loudest Holiday on Earth!

It’s been Spring Festival (Chinese New Year to most of us foreigners) here in Beijing. So far, I have learned a little about this holiday and how it’s celebrated. It seems fun but, I haven’t actually participated in any events. Here is what I’ve learned:

Spring Festival: While living in America, I’d heard about Chinese New Year. So, I was surprised when I asked my Chinese co-teacher, Yuki, about Chinese New Year and she had no idea what I was talking about. Once I explained the basics of the holiday, she corrected me and told me to refer to the holiday as Spring Festival. She said Spring Festival is a direct translation of the Chinese and is a more commonly used term among English speaking Chinese people in Beijing than Chinese New Year.

Nian: Apparently, a long time ago, people thought there was an ugly monster, called Nian, which lived in the mountains. It ate people and was really scary. Around the time of the beginning of spring, Nian would come out and start eating villagers, especially children. Someone found out that the monster was afraid of two things: loud noises and the color red. So, people started wearing red clothes, hanging up red signs, shooting off fireworks, and banging on drums and gongs around this time of the year to scare Nian off.

Fireworks: If I had to describe Spring Festival in one word, it would be fireworks. My neighbors have been shooting off fireworks for almost two weeks now. There was an especially intense three day period where the fireworks went on for about 22 hours each day. In addition to this, these fireworks are not all normal fireworks. Some of them are run of the mill fireworks, like the kind you can buy at Target for the 4^th of July. Others, however, are more like sticks of dynamite. While walking in my apartment complex a few days ago, I encountered some fireworks that were so powerful, I felt the ground shake over 100 feet away. The sound was so loud, I had to put my hands over my ears because the sound hurt me. I’m going to start looking at people’s hands more carefully now. I feel like I should be seeing a higher number of people with mangled and/or missing fingers than I would anywhere else.

Travel: Beijing really emptied out for this holiday. The reason for this is that on the eve of Spring Festival, families will have a reunion dinner. So, people travel to their hometown for this. Since Beijing has so many people who moved for work, many people leave. According to Slate.com, there were 3.4 billion trips taken during Spring Festival 2013. I believe it. It seem like half of Beijing is gone. But, it’s been nice having the city be a little less crowded for the last 3 weeks.

Time off: This is, by far, the biggest holiday in China. It’s like Christmas in the US but, for everyone, and for longer. My Spring Festival break started on Friday, January 17. I go back to work on Saturday, February 15. (Yes, I have to work on a Saturday but, it’s a Teacher Work Day - no kids.) This is fairly common here. Only the largest chains have remained open the entire holiday. Many small places were closed for part of the time. This time off makes all of that travel possible.

My first Spring Festival has been an interesting experience. If I’m here next year, come and visit me for this (loud) holiday.