Foreigners feasting on festive delights(2)

　　A week of feasting and firecrackers

February will mark my fourth year in China, and having been married to a Chinese woman for seven years now, I've seen my fair share of Spring Festivals.

But the first and longest-lasting impression must be the sheer number of fireworks I saw the first time I was in Beijing during the celebrations. In Rome, we're used to celebrating (Western) New Year with fireworks, but that's nothing compared with the number set off in Beijing during Spring Festival.

Another thing that impressed me was the length of the celebrations. The fireworks are set off intermittently for an entire week, something I've never seen at home. We usually set off fireworks for one or two hours on the night of New Year's Eve and that's all, but here it's kind of continuous. It can be noisy at times, but it's certainly interesting to see.

In my experience, it (Spring Festival) can probably be equated with the Christmas celebrations in Italy. Right now, I cannot think of any holiday that's more important for us during the year. Also, it's not just Christmas Day but a long period known as "The Festivities", including St Stephen's day (Dec 26), New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and Epiphany on Jan 6, during which kids usually receive gifts and sweets, and hear all the stories relating to Father Christmas - Babbo Natale - and la Befana, an old lady who rides a broom who is said to bring presents and sweets to good kids on the night of Jan 6 and 7. The sweets and candies are usually stuffed into a stock.

In my experience, because it's tied up with my childhood and full of nice memories of being at home with my family, of course, I personally prefer Christmas more than Spring Festival, but I think that's normal - since I was a kid, I've grown up celebrating that way, and I eagerly await those days.

Eating is a very important part of Spring Festival. I think every festivity entails large meals with family and friends. Also, for at least two or three continuous days in Italy, there are feasts at dinner or lunch, with relatives or friends at different locations. Usually, these are held at people's homes, but we sometimes go to a restaurant.

When I was a kid we used to go to my aunt's house for Christmas Eve dinner. Then on Christmas Day we went to my grandparents' house for lunch, and then back to my aunt's for dinner. On Dec 26, we sometimes gathered for lunch but it wasn't like that every year, and it diminished as my cousins and I grew up and my relatives grew older.

Personally, I like eating, even if sometimes it's not physically pleasant to eat so much for so long, but it's nice to eat some special holiday food and sweets, which we don't normally eat at other times. As for alcohol, it's a normal part of celebrating so I'm completely fine with that, as long as it remains a "festivity-only" thing.