Walking the Wall

Private fireworks over the town square in Shenmu

When we were planning our trip to China, over a year ago, we thought it would be great to start things off by coming for Chinese New Year. We had visions of huge fireworks shows over the Forbidden City, happy crowds eating mooncakes in Tiananmen Square and dragon dances in the streets.

What we found instead were empty streets and shuttered shops. When we headed to Tiananmen just before midnight, there was a small crowd with a high proportion of Westerners milling around the Gate of Heavenly Peace, shivering and looking bored. After some small, uninteresting fireworks displays, the evening fizzled out and we went back to the hotel to bed.

That’s not to say that Chinese New Year is a dud – it’s just that, unbeknownst to us at the time, the biggest holiday of the year in China is a more private affair. While public festivities similar to New Year’s Eve in Sydney or the Fourth of July in America can be found, most Chinese spend their New Year at one of tens of millions of smaller, family-oriented celebrations.

Decorations on an old house near Daheta

Chinese New Year (also known as Spring Festival) falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (or in a very few years, on the third); this year it was February 18. The holiday lasts for 15 days, until the full moon, and culminates in the Festival of the Lanterns, where red lanterns bearing words of good fortune are lit up outside the home or around the town. The whole period is a time for family reunions, huge meals, and like the American Christmas, absolute chaos in the country’s transportation network. According to China Daily, over 2 billion trips are made by plane, train, car and bus in what is the largest annual human migration on earth (see “50m Chinese on move as holiday winds down”).

There are 12 animals in the Chinese New Year cycle which also rotates around five earthly elements, making up a whole cycle of 60 years. This year is the Year of the Golden Pig and is an especially auspicious year for giving birth. Apparently there was a marriage rush on last year in preparation, and according to China Daily, baby and medical authorities in the cities are fearing an overload on their services (“China embraces ‘piglets’ boom”).

The pig is the last animal in the 12-animal cycle, thereby signalling ultimate success

There are scores of traditions, taboos and symbols associated with Chinese New Year, and they are reflected in holiday decorations. The week before New Year’s, town markets are filled with lanterns, banners, posters and trinkets proclaiming good health, wealth, fortune and happiness. New clothes are bought for the new year, and during spring cleaning old demons are literally and figuratively swept away from the home. The town square is decorated with lights and lanterns, and images of the zodiac animal (in this year, the pig) are hung up on shop windows.

We thought about buying a lantern for our tent but couldn’t find one small enough

In Yulin’s marketplace the decorations stalls stretched on for hundreds of metres

These large banners are hung alongside doors and windows

Last year we arrived right on New Year’s Eve, so we didn’t see the leadup to Spring Festival or the shopping frenzy that occurs while people buy food and decorations. Being out here in the country we’ve been able to see where all these decorations go – everywhere. Spring couplets, called chun lian, are hung on either side and above the front door of the home, on truck fenders and car windshields, on the pig and donkey pens. All over villages, the colour red leaps out from around the windows or doors, scaring away evil spirits and inviting in good fortune.

A typical doorway display

The small banner reads “Fat pig, lots of meat”

The village grindstone

But why settle for just the colour red to scare away evil spirits when you’ve got firecrackers? The story goes that at the end of the old year, villages would be terrorized by a monster who ate people and animals. Firecrackers were the only thing that this monster was afraid of, so at midnight on New Year’s Eve, firecrackers would be set off to scare away the monster until the next year. Huge packets of fireworks and firecrackers are sold in the week leading up to Spring Festival and a few weeks after. Needless to say, boys and young men are probably the main customers and set them off at all times of the day and night.

The merchants in Yulin’s marketplace don’t seem to appreciate the importance of demon-scaring

A not-so-small arsenal

Of course, not all of the customers are young men