Chinese New Year 2008!

Chinese New Year in New York
Chatham Square has been the location of the annual firecrackers display for the past 3 years. Firecrackers are used to scare away bad spirits and welcome the new year.

Oh. And excuse the camera shake. A little kid took refuge from the crowd under my tripod. =)

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Chinese
• New
• Year
• York
• Firecrackers
• Fireworks
• Chinatown

[NYFilms]

Personally, I prefer the old system we had for firecrackers where stores could string up their own line or two of those loong firecracker ropes and anyone could toss in the smaller packs of firecrackers. A ban on all other types of fireworks would be fine with me such as bottle rockets, M80's, etc. It just doesn't feel the same anymore. Walking down Mott St covered in tiny red paper, the remnants of thousands of firecrackers, and the smell of gunpowder is something future generations will miss.

[ahdamn51]

If you do not cover your ears while watching that you're ears are going to be ringing for hours.

[NYFilms]

Yes, they would. I've had experience with REAL Chinese New Year though... I had ear plugs. This was when anyone could use firecrackers. They used to hang those 10' long strands of firecrackers from the 2nd or 3rd floor windows and the lion dancers would have to work their way up to the prize at the top!

[jimmyvbs]

firecrackers plz not fireworks

[Bigfitch1012]

We used to light firecrackers inside 22 Mott when they'd still take lions out of Hung Muen. No one ever got hurt. Remember Pell Street in the afternoon when the parade would reach Hip Sing. You couldn't even see what was in front of you there was so much smoke. But even though the head was filled with smoke and there was firecrackers exploding on my fuckin shoes, it was fun as all hell, and a true celebration. Guliani is a douche.

[crazytewory]

As one of the firework technicians who helped on that show, this was one of the best Chinatown Chinese New Year firecracker displays.

[liondance4life]

this pales in comparison to the things done years before when i was a kid... this may be awe inspiring for some but to me its sad and unbelievable that we can be told how to run our culture, we dont tell other cultures not to do things so leave us alone

[liondance4life]

it pisses me off that guliani did this crap, yeah it might be safer but this is our culture. we stay in chinatown and do our own thing while all other cultures go down 5th avenue. we dont want to bother other people and we dont want to be bothered, let us do our fire crackers and leave us alone, now we can barely go out without being harrassed by the fucking pigs

[jesssawyer]

This year was much better than last year!!!!!