China Hope Live » Chinese festivals

Those aren’t Chinese New Year’s fireworks; they’re “recreational munitions”

Joel 大江 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:48:09 +0000

From Nankai Rob’s Chinese New Year 2012 post “Spring Festival Time. . .Lock and Load“:
“…parties are held on a scale so massive that Caligula would have nodded in approval, and enough recreational munitions are set off to make the Battle of Waterloo feel like a suburban bar mitzvah. You’ll notice my careful word choice here: “recreational munitions” rather than “fireworks.” “Fireworks” as a term carries with it more celebratory, even innocent connotations, but you can’t define Chinese celebratory fireworks by the intent behind them. Certainly they’re set off with great excitement and joy, but you can, after all, also lob a grenade into a dumpster with great excitement and joy, and most of what is being set off these days qualifies for inclusion in the dumpster-grenade category. So: recreational munitions.”

For more about the genuinely stunning Chinese New Year fireworks phenomenon with photos and video, see:

Happy Chinese New Year!

Those aren’t Chinese New Year’s fireworks; they’re “recreational munitions”

Joel 大江 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:48:09 +0000

For more about the genuinely stunning Chinese New Year fireworks phenomenon with photos and video, see:

Happy Chinese New Year!

The evolution of Christmas Eve in China [Updated]

Joel 大江 — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:41:28 +0000

In China, Christmas Eve is actually called “Peaceful Night” (平安夜 — after the Chinese translation of the song “Silent Night”), but peaceful is the one thing it definitely isn’t. Here’s a short post about Christmas Eve in urban China, from a foreigner who’s witnessed it go from nothing to the spectacle it is today in just a few short years: Some Thoughts on “Ping An Ye” (Silent Night)
An here’s a Chinese perspective, translated into English: Christmas in Shanghai

For more about the odd creature Christmas Eve has become in China (with pictures!), see:

The evolution of Christmas Eve in China [Updated]

Joel 大江 — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:41:28 +0000

For more about the odd creature Christmas Eve has become in China (with pictures!), see:

Man-With-a-Child Day in China

Joel 大江 — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 02:13:31 +0000

Fathers’ Day doesn’t have near the cultural traction in China that Children’s Day and Mother’s Day do. Here’s an informal survey that distills three commonly-offered explanations for why this is so: Men With a Child Day

Happy Dragon Boat Festival 2011! Here’re some photos!

Joel 大江 — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:41:28 +0000

Today is the Dragon Boat Festival 端午节。Tianjin’s Dragon Boat festivities don’t even come close to what we saw in Taipei (though I did once see a dragon boat team bailing out their sinking dragon boat while trying to practice on the canal 卫津河), so if you want to see some dragon boat race pictures I suggest you take a peak at this gallery:

Dragon Boat Festival 2006

All our Dragon Boat stuff was written from Taipei:

Dragon Boat Festival 2006
Dragon Boat Festival 2006 May 31 [photo gallery]
Dragon Boat Festival [info]

Happy Dragon Boat Festival 2011! Here’re some photos!

Joel 大江 — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:41:28 +0000

Dragon Boat Festival 2006

All our Dragon Boat stuff was written from Taipei:

Dragon Boat Festival 2006
Dragon Boat Festival 2006 May 31 [photo gallery]
Dragon Boat Festival [info]

Observing Tomb Sweeping traditions in Guilin, China

Joel 大江 — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:15:37 +0000

A guy goes with his wife’s family to 扫墓, or perform Tomb Sweeping Festival rituals at the family tomb. Lots of pictures, interesting information, and first-hand descriptions of the experience: 清明节 (Qingming Festival), paying respect to the ancestors.

(More about Tomb Sweeping Festival here.)

Observing Tomb Sweeping traditions in Guilin, China

Joel 大江 — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:15:37 +0000

(More about Tomb Sweeping Festival here.)

Tomb Sweeping Festival 清明节 2011 photos from Nankai, Tianjin, China

Joel 大江 — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:50:45 +0000

Here are some photos from around our neighbourhood in the days before Tomb Sweeping Festival 清明节 (April 5). Tomb Sweeping Festival is when Chinese traditionally honour their ancestors by tidying their graves and making offerings to them, mostly by burning spirit money (纸钱) and other paper offerings. See more photos in the Tomb Sweeping Festival 2011 photo gallery.

A family tradition. A family burns spirit money on the sidewalk outside our apartment complex:

Spirit money for sale on the corner nearest our apartment complex:

Spirit money (纸钱) is usually called “ghost money” or literally translated as “paper money”. This man is also in the following photo.

Piles of spirit money ash. Intersections are prime locations for sending burnt offerings to your ancestors:

Local media pooh-poohs on the practice of burning piles paper in public spaces and then leaving the ash to blow around. This neighbourhood notice board says:

“Civilizedly offer sacrifices and tidy the ancestral tombs,
safe and sound Tomb Sweeping Festival”
文明祭扫平安清明

See more 2011 Tomb Sweeping Festival photos here.

More about Tomb Sweeping Festival:

Tomb Sweeping Day (清明节) 2010 in Tianjin [photos]
Tomb Sweeping Day [info]