Spring Festival Fireworks

Start Date (2009): January 25

End Date (2009): February 08

Event Information:

Spring Festival (called Chun Jie, and known as the Chinese New Year) is the most important holiday event for Chinese. It is like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the 4th of July for Americans, all rolled into one. The traditional Chinese calendar still follows the lunar year. Each year uses one of twelve animals from the Chinese Zodiac, and rotates in a 12 year cycle. For example, 2009 is the Year of the Ox, and 2008 was the Year of the Rat. Because the lunar calendar is different from year to year, the Spring Festival can start anywhere from early January to mid February on the Gregorian calendar. Dalian hosts many celebrations that follow different Chinese customs to mark this special day. Setting off long rows of firecrackers and beautiful fireworks is the most common and widely followed tradition. From ancient times, it was believed that these loud and colorful explosives could break the darkness to scare away demons and bad luck. Even people who have never been to China have seen these fireworks events in Chinatowns around the world. Because of safety and environmental concerns, traditional fireworks celebrations have been banned in many regions throughout China. In Dalian, Xinghai (Star Ocean) Square is the annual host of the city's internationally famous festival. Visitors commonly spend the day tasting a variety of snacks and watching ethnic performances around the bustling fair grounds. After sunset, the ocean is a perfectly dark canvas to paint the flower-shaped patterns from the glowing fireworks display. The 15 day holiday ends with the Lantern Festival.

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