Happy Year of the Ham!

Don't just sit there.  Celebrate!  Eat some pork!

 The "den" is very nicely decked out in such a way that you would think that you were in China. They have artificial trees and Luna New Year cards. Guests write their wishes on a card and hang it on the tree. The Casino is decked out with Chinese lanterns and other decorations. I purchased a nice little pig ornament from a thrift shop and it is in a position near my front door. Happy year of the Pig to you El and to all who celebrate it!

The fireworks are a bit sporadic this year.  Seemed like more on Jan 2nd (Chinese calendar) than Dec 31 or Jan 1.

Still, I plan to celebrate the year with lots and lots of ham.

Fireworks this year were utterly bizarre. Very nearly no one at all blew up anything within the city limits, so while thunder rolled in from the countryside for about thirty minutes either side of midnight, there was basically nothing to see. And actually, once the fireworks were done, it was still possible to see. In years past the entire skyline would light up, and the air grimly thicken, and the AQI would be "Hazardous" for the rest of the night. Improvement, I guess, but kind of a bust.

Calach, I wonder if that has anything to do with my observations here, that so many people are more concerned with screen time?

Calach, I wonder if that has anything to do with my observations here, that so many people are more concerned with screen time?

Seems unlikely. The enthusiasm with which people blow things up around here is startling and shocking the first time you see it. Literally everyone across the city and all through the countryside would have had boxes of rockets. Have you seen video of anti-aircraft fire over, say, Baghdad in the first Iraq war? That's what it sounds like, except more intense. And it used to be that this all happened right outside your door. I used to watch out the window and see for literally 180 degrees of view across the city firework bursting everywhere for an hour or more. People would set things off in the streets, in playing fields, on their roofs...

This year, all of that still happened, but almost completely outside the city. The sound reached here, and a fair amount of smoke, but only a handful of brave souls set off anything nearby. Unexpectedly successful environmental regulation, is what I think it was. Pretty sure there have been laws against fireworks within city limits for some time now, not obeyed of course, right up until this year.


*sigh* in the olden days I used to buy boxes of bombs too. They'd be sold along the roadside and I'd cart them back to the house. Used to be you could get fireworks locally for weeks before and after the festivals too. It's pretty fun setting off your own stuff. And really fairly normal to just set up on the playing field and make things go bang and then go home. But that's all years ago now.

Beijing has banned them within the 5th ring road so it's all quiet here and chilled. I miss the fun of them but not the constant noise for a week

And now, it's Lantern Festival.  This is one of several "This is Chinese Valentines Day.  What do you mean there's more than one Chinese Valentines Day?"  I need to try to write down each one as I hear about it so I can get the full list.

EL, there didn't appear to be any special decorations at "the den" yesterday for Chinese Valentines day. I must say that the Casino seemed to be full of Asians when I arrived at about 11am. When I left at about 4pm, I also noticed that many of the Asian folks had left.

Here is appeared to mostly be a "let's get rid of all the remaining fireworks" day.