Christmas in China

Twas the night before Christmas, and all were covered in foam and beating each other with plastic inflatable hammers....? What?! Yes.....

So Christmas Eve we (foreign teachers) head to downtown Beibei for Christmas festivities. As we approach the town center I look up at some weird looking stars and realize they're not stars at all but hundreds of floating lanterns gently moving across the sky! No camera could capture this but it was one of the coolest things I've seen. So as tradition goes in Beibei, we purchase our giant inflatable sledghammers and beating sticks, arm our pockets with cans of spray snow and head into battle. And what a battle it was! Once we got into the main square it was pretty much a free for all; a good thousand or so people beating each other and attack spraying with fake snow foam soapy stuff. My downfall was not wearing a hood, my hair gave me away and whenever people saw a foreigner it was a full on ambush. I'm beating with my left and spraying with my right! The other teachers are trying to defend me. Ammo is low. RETREAT! RETREAT!!!!! We lay down another 10 kuai ($1.50) and get 4 more cans of snow and charge into the action once again! It was AWESOME! We stayed until about 11, or until all the foam started to weigh down my clothes :) Craziest Christmas Eve I've ever had.

Why do the Chinese even celebrate Christmas you might ask? Well it's really just a commercial holiday over here. Most shops decorate for Christmas with trees and lights and tinsel or a cartoon Santa face, and some of my students said that they  might exchange small gifts with their friends, but they don't really understand the meaning. It's just another time to decorate, participate in something Western, and beat each other with blow up hammers. I mean really, what says Merry Christmas better than foaming complete strangers under a canopy of floating lanterns right?! ;)

On Christmas day I watched some Christmas movies, ate an advent calendar and enjoyed a huge feast with the other teachers in the evening. It was a little hard being away from family and friends but the few of you I did get in touch with made the day very special :) I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a very happy New Year!

This is a link to an aritcle featured in the New York Times about Chongqing.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/travel/26chongqing.html?pagewanted=1&hp