Every year I’m in Shanghai for Chinese New Year I half look earnest to it, half fear it. The looking forward function is easy – the city empties out, people are happy and feeling jovial, the decorations are up and it’s fun to see a whole place array up for the biggest holiday of the year – especially when you’ve already done your celebrating so you don’t feel the pressure to cook a turkey or buy one more Christmas present. I have that happy – I’m-done-with-my-holiday-and-I-happily-gawk-as-you-enjoy-yours feeling.
The fear part comes this evening as the fireworks begin at 11:45 and don’t stop until the fifteenth day of the lunar new year. Hmm, let’s see, that’s February 28th! All right, I’m exaggerating a little bit however they really do seem to go on and attached. I have no issue with the pretty roman candles exploding into the sky – it’s the truckloads of red firecrackers that just when you think you can sleep, seem to go off right outside your window.
Chinese legend has it that demons are scared off by the loud noises, the cracking sound, the color red and smoke. Mix that all together and you’ve got China’s population’s weight in firecrackers going off from 11:45 tonight until the wee hours.
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Happy New Year persons! It’s been five days since the New Year festivities but I find myself unable to shake off the holiday stupor. So today I cracked my fingers, pulled out the camera and ran through photos from our New Year celebrations at London’s London Eye. I thought I’d share these with you.
A bunch of us headed to a friend’s terrace (situated in the heart of London) for this remarkable view of the London Eye.
London Eye
The London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, was every one of lit up, waiting, like the slumber of the world for the clocks to strike 12. And then it happened.
Inaugurated in 1999, by the then PM Tony Blair, the London Eye was the largest Ferris wheel (or observation wheel, as some prefer to call it) in the world. It still remains the largest Ferris wheel in Europe.
Not only is the London Eye a popular landmark and tourist attractions, the London Eye fireworks display has become a highly anticipated global event. Thousands braved the cold (and it was cold!) to catch a glimpse of this. It was totally worth the effort.
The tradition of the London Eye fireworks display began in 2005.
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The New Year is working its way west across Russia to all of the nations in East and East Central Europe. Celebrants waiting to ring in 2010 brave the cold in historic squares and observe local traditions. The countries of Eastern Europe bring forth different ways of wishing others a happy New Year, but the sentiment is the same:
- Gezuar Vitin e Ri (Albanian)
- З Новым годам (Belorussian)
- Sretna nova godina (Bosnian)
- Щастлива Нова Година (Bulgarian)
- Sretna Nova godina!
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