Power cut-off. Saving energy?

For some reason I woke up around 3:00 am last night, which usually doesn't happen. I wanted to check what time it was, and noticed that there was no power. What could be the reason? A shortcut, forgot to pay the electricity bill, a problem in the electricity network, all very well possible. When I looked outside the window, our neigbourhood looked very dark. So, I decided it must have been a problem in the network, and went to bed again.

In the morning, there was still no electricity. After asking around we found out that it was not a network problem, but that the electricity was simply cut off in our neigbourhood. In the evening at 19:30 there would be electricity again!
This kind of thing happens sometimes here. It is a way of saving energy. But for as far as I knew, it is only done in summer, when the aircos are operating day and night. The energy problems seem to be getting more and more serious, as the airco season has not started yet.

A practical difficulty is the fact that these power cut-offs are not communicated so well (if at all). This one was supposedly announced in some newspaper! I guess I must have missed that issue ;-) So most of the times, people are taken by surprise, which caused some small problems here and there: no power to open the garage door, telephone not working and mobile phone batteries empty, the electric front gate could not open, etc. It is on days like these that you realise how much we depend on electricity in daily life.

On the positive side, we took the opportunity of the power cut, to have dinner by candle light, and to play cards in the evening. Gezellig!

Later this evening, everything was back to normal again. But much later than the announced 19:30 .... of course.

A tale to the Spring Festival - the Nian

As I wrote the post about the Spring Festival, I did not know that there was still something coming.
In fact, the Spring Festival lasts 15 days in total. During the first 15 days of the new year, it was believed that an evil spirit will test the humans. Supposedly, the word or name for this demon is nian, the Chines word for 'year'. The fireworks during the Spring Festival are therefore traditionally intended to chase away the evil spirit. As one web site writes:

Its origin is ancient, but many believe the word Nian, which means "year", was the name of a beast that preyed on people on the eve of a new year.

In one legend, the beast, Nian, had the power to swallow up all the people in a village in one big bite. Village people were very scared of Nian.

One day, an old man came to the villagers' rescue, offering to subdue Nian. The old man asked Nian, "I know you can swallow people, but can you swallow other beasts of prey instead of people who are by no means your worthy opponents?"

Nian accepted the old man's challenge and swallowed the beasts that had harassed the villagers and their farm animals for years.

At the end of the legend, the old man disappeared riding off on Nian. In this legend, the old man turned out to be an immortal god.

In the end, Nian is gone and the other beasts of prey are scared into hiding in the forests. The villagers can once again enjoy their peaceful life.

The legend goes on to say before the old man left, he told the villagers to put red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end in order to keep Nian away. It is believed Nian is afraid of the color red.

The tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on from generation to generation. The term "Guo Nian", which means "Survive the Nian" became "Celebrate the Year" and the word "guo" in Chinese means both "pass over" and "observe".

The custom of putting up red paper and lighting firecrackers to scare away Nian continues today.

And indeed, on the 15th day, the skies above Fuzhou were filled again with 'smoke flowers' (fireworks), noise, and smell of gun powder.
The end of the new year's celebrations is marked with the 'festival of the lanterns' during which many people (especially children) go out onto the streets with lanterns. A very picturesque, but also very crowded experience.

Now, the Spring Festival is really over, and the amount of fireworks has reached a normal average again ... making way for the 'normal' construction noises. But that's a fact of life, here in China. It is never really quiet.