Burning down the house - - Spring Festival continued

Some of you might know why one of the aspects of Spring Festival - the "there is no such thing as tomorrow" attitude of Chinese when it comes to firework - especially appeals to me: I am a convinced firebug (with a somewhat doubtful CV.. (I sometimes "use" the opportunity of a nice dinner with candle light to set parts of restaurants on fire..)

As touched upon in the post on Spring Festival in general, loud noise was one of the successful strategies back in history to scare monsters and evil spirits away. While one might discuss the exact motivation of today's average Chinese to set off firework (evil spirits or simply seeking the Crash Boom Bang kick) one can say for sure that they do it:

• area-wide. Contributing factor may be: Firework is as manifold as cheap. One decent, ear-splitting firecracker costs around 1Fen (roughly 0.15 Eurocent).. Swiss sized "Frauenfürze" (literal translation: Women's farts) are not a patch on their Chinese counterparts..
• feverishly. Especially in Beijing, where authorities had lifted a 12-year ban on firecrackers within the Fifth Ring Road. Hence: the hell of a lot to make up for..
• with a high propensity to take risks

While people started setting off firecrackers already early in January and continue until to date, the night of the 29th was clearly the climax: absolutely amazing, almost scary.. It felt as if the floor trembled, as if the city was about to pop as a giant-sized cork. Walking down a street was an adventure: one had to constantly mind firecrackers placed by a random player and/or skyrockets (am talking about firework..) slightly off track.. It was also impressive to see where (literally everywhere) people would set off firework: Living on the 9th floor of an apartment building, for example, I had the privilege to watch skyrockets explode beautifully and in palmtreeshape at eye level and just about 2 meters away from my nose (well, there was a window in between..;).. Craaaazzyyyyy.. but fun!!

Early in the morning(s) the city then resembled somewhat of a war zone. The vestiges of firecrackers and fireworks were scattered all over and formed, somewhat exaggeratedly, the alps of Beijing.. (thanks Habib for the cool shot!) Well then, this experience was pretty mind-blowing and I enjoyed it thoroughly. And hey: if you feel like upgrading your firecrackers or preparing your own one's right away here comes the recipe ((c) China Firework Culture Museum):

1. Cut out a small piece of cardboard, roll it and put glue on one end. Wrap the glue end with a piece of red satin for waterproofing and decoration.
2. Fill the cardboard tube with saltpetre, earth and a drying agent until it is 3/4 full. Allow the earth to dry completely before proceeding.
3. When the earth is dry, put a small hole in the middle of the tube and insert a piece of unvarnished fuse.
4. Fill the hole with flash powder. Pack the explosive tigthly in the tube with a wad of tissue paper. Repeat several times to make a pack and then tie together.
5. >> Kawoooom and a smile on the face when entering a hopefully Happy Year of the Dog.

.. for me it's a bit like with cooking: I rather eat... :)