Foreigners feasting on festive delights(3)

　　Spending time with the family is the most important thing

My first Chunjie (Chinese Spring Festival) was spent at my wife's home in the Fangshan district of Beijing.

I have to say that it was the first time I had seen so many fireworks in the streets. I was really impressed ... and a bit scared, too. The whole sky was illuminated with colors. It was incredibly beautiful. We couldn't even hear ourselves speak.

At one point, I looked to my left and a firework exploded right next to my wife and me. One of the launchers had fallen and was pointing towards the crowd. We had to run away from the rockets; it was really thrilling and fortunately no one was hurt.

I was actually very lucky because the launcher that fell and fired at the crowd happened to be mine. Oops! People just laughed after the incident and went back to watching the fireworks as if nothing had happened.

Nowadays I tend to watch fireworks from afar; I don't play with them anymore. We have a great view from our apartment and it's a lot safer too!

In some senses, Chunjie in China is like Christmas in Western countries.

You ask which I prefer? Well first, I must list the differences between the two. Of course, Christmas has a religious meaning whereas Chunjie has quite pragmatic origins. Westerners celebrate "birth", according to a solar calendar, while China follows the moon to prepare for "the rebirth".

We have a Christmas tree and the story of Santa Claus, while Chinese people tell the story of Nian, a monster that comes back every spring to eat people and livestock.

In the West, children get presents in their stockings, not money in red envelopes, and we have the hymn Silent Night and turkey - China doesn't sleep and the sky is lit up by fireworks after a plate of dumplings.

You could say that these two holidays are radically different, but I don't believe so. In fact, only those few details listed above make these two holidays different and I believe that Christmas and Spring Festival are very similar indeed.

Why? Because, more than anything else, they're about families getting together. A few weeks ago, I spent my first Christmas with my family back in France in 10 years. I realized then that it's the people you're with, not the place or the size of the tree that makes this time of the year what it is. Without family and friends, these festivals would not be different from any other day of the year, and as much as I love decorating the tree with my family before Christmas, I enjoy making dumplings with my wife and her family during Spring Festival. So I can say that I like Christmas and Spring Festival equally, so long as I spend them with the right people.

Some people complain of being bored with feasting and too much alcohol during the Chunjie holidays.

Again, it's very similar to what we have in France for Christmas: I just kept eating and drinking with my family for days and I gained almost 5 kilos within three weeks when I went back last year. Now, I have to do the same thing here for Spring Festival, so it's a good thing these holidays don't last too long because otherwise I would definitely become obese!

Anyway, I won't drink too much this year because I can't drink white spirit (baijiu) anymore. I got really drunk with it a few years ago and to this day I still can't drink it. I even hate the smell of it.

I will stick to beer so I can drink with everyone else. Moderation is my catchword now!