AS a folk custom, firecrackers have, over time, become an integral part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, over a history spanning more than 2,000 years.
Firecrackers are called baozhu in Chinese, with bao meaning explosion and zhu meaning bamboo. Therefore it is easy to extrapolate from the Chinese that people in ancient times burned bamboo to produce a clear cracking sound.
The first recorded instance relating to firecrackers is in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC). People set bamboo on fire on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to drive away evil spirits and pray for good luck.
According to legend, there was a monster called Nian (nian means year). Nian had lived for a long time on the seabed, but on New Year's Eve it would come ashore and devour livestock and human beings.
To escape the assault from Nian, people would flee into the mountains.
One year on New Year's Eve, when people at one particular village were busy preparing to hide in the mountains, an old beggar entered the village.
Only one old woman paid attention to the rugged man and, giving him some food, advised him to run away.
However, the old man said that he would drive away Nian as long as he could stay at the old woman's house for the night.
In the middle of the night, Nian barged into the empty village, bellowing with venom before the old woman's house when seeing red paper on the door and light in the room. When Nian tried to break into the house, the beggar set fire to some bamboo, and the cracking sound frightened the monster, which cried and subsequently ran away.
On New Year's Day, when the villagers returned, they saw the red paper on the door, and found some bamboo still cracking in the old woman's garden. Thus, the firecracker tradition was born.
The burning of bamboo spread to many places during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) and Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279). With the invention of gunpowder, people started to put gunpowder into bamboo to produce louder bangs in the latter years of the Song Dynasty. Later, when paper was used, firecrackers, as we know them today emerged, with gunpowder wrapped within layers of paper.
Also, during the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279), fireworks appeared as a form of entertainment for the emperors, and gradually were used by ordinary people as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations. To well-off businessmen, the lighting of firecrackers and fireworks, to this day, symbolizes their expectation of wealth for the coming year.
During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), firecrackers won great popularity throughout the country. Especially in the final years of the Qing Dynasty, firecrackers were not only set off at New Year, but also at weddings, funerals and religious festivals.
Nowadays, Liuyang in central China's Hunan Province, Pingxiang in east China's Jiangxi Province are home to the main producers of firecrackers. However, due to tragic explosions at some firecracker workshops, Jiangxi has vowed it will stop the production of firecrackers in the province over the next few years.
(Shanghai Star January 31, 2003)
