Welcome! Year of the Ox

The last few days have not been good ones if you are a bit jumpy. I stood outside on my balcony at various times during the day and 3 Mississip was far as I could count without hearing some type of firework exploding. Many of the people like to wait for people on the street to walk just past them and then set off about 200 firecrackers. I have been a victim of this a couple of times, but it is all good natured and everyone gets a good laugh.
One thing I want to point out is that in the first scene in the video people are shooting fireworks out of their homes. It was crazy. I can’t believe something did not burn to the ground.
I will be gone for a few days and will probably not be able to post much this week, so enjoy the fireworks. Also here is a little bit of explanation of why Lunar new year is such a big deal.

According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian or "Year" in Chinese. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, the Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjunlaozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjunlaozu's mount.