Bang!
Bang bang bang!!!
Boooooooooooooooooooooom!
Bang bang whooooosh ...
BANG!!!
Yes, dear readers, it’s Chinese New Year once again. This year will be the ninth time that I have experienced what is perhaps the most colourful – and the loudest – of Malaysia’s pantheon of cultural festivals.
Despite a month or so of almost continuous monsoon rain, the firecrackers, rockets, bangers and ‘bunga api’ (fire flowers) are out in force, to celebrate the coming of the Lunar New Year of the Ox.
Well, I say ‘in force’, but I can’t help noticing a slight downturn in the amount of firecrackers lighting up our sky last night, nor could I avoid the impression that the decibel level and duration of the cannonades was somewhat reduced compared to previous years. It just goes to show what the economic slowdown and the credit crunch can do to sales of firecrackers for the Lunar New Year season. Or perhaps the authorities have been a little bit more successful in confiscating illegal fireworks this year. I don’t know.
But whatever the truth is, it is heartening to see that tradition and culture still triumph despite the vagaries of economics, and rain. Long may it continue (though next year, give me some cotton wool for my ears, ah!).
So here’s wishing all my Chinese friends, colleagues and neighbours a hearty Gong Xi Fatt Chai and much prosperity and happiness for the year of the Ox. I have a feeling that we are all going to need it....
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