A large part of the Chinese New Year celebrations include the use of fireworks and loud noises to ward off evil spirits. As far as I can tell people will set off fireworks from the day before Chinese New Year (sometimes even earlier) until the Lantern Festival. The village celebration was no different. As we wandered from place to place following the dragon and lion dancers they would set off fireworks in each location. Sometimes the fireworks were so close we'd have firework debris raining down on our heads. (My American sense of safety was severely threatened by this)
The big fireworks displays came in boxes. Basically you lit one fuse and the whole box would (in theory) ignite one by one, creating a brilliant, effortless display. I don't know how many boxes were purchased for just the Lantern festival but there were fireworks all day and well into the night.
There were also the strings of little noisemakers that just pop pop pop on the ground. I can't even begin to estimate how many, but the carnage was massive. Here are just two shots of firecracker carcasses (and remember we did this at every family shrine, and in the fields, and by the temple, and in several other spots)
The smoke was crazy when we went home we smelled of fireworks, but they were pretty. And every house had a pretty good display.
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