We are currently celebrating Chinese New year — welcome to the year of the sheep/ram/goat. It started last Thursday and festivities will go on for 15 days… ending in the lantern festival. To sum up the entire festival: lots, and lots, and lots of fireworks. Loud ones. Everyday. And every night. Non-stop.

To give you an idea, here’s the NYE midnight firework show from our apartment… the first video is the view to downtown, the second video is the view inside our apartment complex.

Not all of the fireworks are pretty. Traditionally, fireworks are set off in order to scare away a monster/ghost, so most of them are just loud (like blackcats). They’re set off in front of doorways, in public areas, and even in stairwells. Here’s some of the daily aftermath:

The other festivities include lots of eating at friends’/family’s houses, and gift giving… including mandarin oranges, milk, eggs, yogurt, and of course hong bao’s (red envelope with money in it). We were invited to a local friend’s house to eat with his parents and participate in the gift exchange… our first hong bao! The gifts we brought are on the floor behind us 🙂

We’ve enjoyed experiencing China’s biggest holiday. We still have 8 days to enjoy it… but we won’t be sad to see the nightly 3am firework display cease.