Fireworks, Dumplings, & Golden Pigs...

Red underwear be gone!!! The year of the pig is upon as, my year is now dog-gone. Chinese New Years celebration started up this past Saturday and brought with it four of the more insane days I have ever taken part in on this fair planet.

For those of you who have never been to China during their New Years, the only thing I can compare it to is Beirut circa 1982. If you missed out on that as well, you can check out the video below. I shot this beauty a few moments after midnight on Saturday. The street is a couple blocks from my apt and is home to Mr. Ma's dumpling joint, where we made our own Jiao Zi (dumplings) and then cooked them up at midnight while we lit off an absurd amount of fireworks alongside seemingly the rest of China. We did this, naturally, to chase away the bad demons that will keep us form having good luck and prosperity in the New Year.

The Spring festival goes on for a total of 15 days, concluding with the Lantern Festival. Until this day, demons must be chased away. Fireworks have been going non-stop, day and night, in all locations imaginable: streets, parks, courtyards, building tops, out windows, off remote control helicopters, your hand, anywhere...

Hopefully I'll get through it all, if not, well...at least I went out with a bang.

This might sound weird...

but I realized that my pits smell like the tap water I grew up with for my first 19 years in the burg.