At midnight I go up to the roof of our apartment building on near the center of town, and climb up the telephone mast. All around me in every direction and as far as I can see, the sky is filled with fireworks and the air is filled with the sound of crackers.

Fireworks over the Songhua River in Jilin City. [Jilin City Government]

Lantern Festival is the fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year, and the last day of the celebrations. In the streets you can buy a paper lantern attached to a lump of solid paraffin. Write a message of love, hope or luck on the paper, then light the paraffin, and the lantern will float off into the void to bring you your wishes.

The city provides a firework display for the Lantern Festival. Two wide boulevards line the riverbanks. Hundreds of thousands of people crowd the streets on the city center side, and the fireworks are fired off from the opposite bank. At the climax of the display there is a huge explosion. You look up into the sky. Three giant willow trees hang in the sky, silvered with Jilin Rime. The effect last for perhaps thirty seconds, and disappears.

The spectators give a great cheer for their city, then drift off into the night.

(China.org.cn January 27, 2009)