For Chinese New Year most people get a week off. You'd think they'd spend this time quietly at home resting from a year's worth of working late hours and studying hard. Instead they like to take out their year's frustrations by blowing things up.
Fireworks and firecrackers are a mainstay of CNY celebrations. They are set off all day everyday. It doesn't matter if people are sleeping, and it doesn't matter that you can't see fireworks during the day time. At 4am there was a barrage of fireworks exploding in the sky, no different from the barrage that went off at 10am.
To be honest I don't mind this. I enjoy the freedom that Taiwan provides it's citizens to do this. And for the most part I've gotten used to it so the noise doesn't bother me and doesn't disturb my sleeping (although the 4am ones last night did wake me up).
The same can't be said for my dog though. she hates fireworks and firecrackers, and usually will spend the whole week shaking and trying to find different places in the apartment to hide. It also makes going outside a pain, as it's a race to see if she can get her business done before the next explosion. Although to her credit she has calmed down a lot this year. She still gets scared, but not to the extent she used to, and she seems to have learned that the sooner she does her business, the sooner we can get back home.
The picture above is of firecrackers that people light on the street. This picture doesn't have so much, but on some streets there is so many destroyed firecrackers that it's like walking on top of red snow. You also have to be very care when out and about because you could turn the corner just as somebody is setting some off, and get injured. I once took some debris straight to the throat when exiting my apartment just as somebody had set off firecrackers outside the doorway.
Speaking of safety, there is one last part of fireworks and firecrackers in Taiwan that i like. Young children are free to play with them. Usually in parks you can see young kids playing with both firecrackers and fireworks, by themselves, unsupervised. Nobody thinks this is bad, or that kids will blow off their fingers, nor have i ever seen a kid with less than ten fingers. Everybody acknowledges that kids aren't idiots, and perhaps them having so much experience, is what makes them so safe. Rather than making it taboo and kids not knowing much and blowing off their hand. I'm looking at you America.
