What a crazy event to say the least. The Taiwanese town of yanshui celebrates the end of the Chinese New Year with a bang. Actually, a junk-load of bangs throughout a good span of about 10 hours. We arrived in the tiny town around 3:30. Our host family sat us down for a few rounds of KTV (karaoke) and served up some dinner before we headed out for the night around 6:30. As soon as the first wick was lit we were in front of the madness with thousands of bottle rockets aimed directly at us about 4 feet from our faces. This point-blank stand off would be a common occurrence throughout the next 8 hours. Traveling with packs of people throughout the town, marching through the streets shoulder to shoulder with a motorcycle helmeted, heavy coat clad army looking to get lucky (according to tradition, the more you get pelted with flaming balls of fire and finger-sized explosives, the better the luck you’ll receive in the upcoming year). Every block or so a family would stroll out of their home or business hauling out a custom built wall of shelves lined with thousands of rockets and mortars to fire into anxious, dancing crowds. With that said, my luck should be pretty decent. I took some rapid-fire shots to the head, a few to the face, a lot to the chest, a pummeling to the legs, an explosion that rocked my foot, a few tiny burns on my hands, and a half dollar sized burn through the hood of my sweatshirt right to the back of my neck. There were people on fire, old school dudes in plain clothes bustin’ out tai-chi, spark showers, street fires, small house fires, camera crews, smoke filled streets, and booming blasts above, below, and all around us. Fourth of July has nothing on this spot. Words do no justice to what I experienced this past week. Haha! Here are some pictures and links to youtube for videos. dig it.
eating some lucky cookie swiped off of a god's neckalce
