Flummoxed foreigners- Chinese Spring Festival, no fun for some (4)

One festival was memorable for Duffy but not for good reasons. "Our apartment was on the 17th floor and a firework came through a window and the ensuring fire destroyed just about everything. The landlord refused to pay us compensation because he said we should have kept the window shut. Eventually we got money from the guy who set the fireworks off because he shouldn't have been letting them off in the complex."

Traditions remain but some adopt new approaches

The Spring Festival in Shanghai may not be as bound in tradition as it is in Beijing where temple fairs are important events. Weeks before the Spring Festival, Shanghai families are busy making preparations, buying the special foods for the festival snacks and meals. The people in Chongming county have a particular tradition - they grind rice into powder to make rice cakes, which symbolize joy and progress.

Meanwhile other citizens are trying on and buying new clothes, shoes and hats. It's important to look your best for the New Year. The New Year's Eve dinner is particularly important. In the past, a family would have been preparing this for days beforehand until all the members of the family were sitting together around the table, enjoying the feast - usually with the television turned to the broadcast of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Nowadays many families book rooms in restaurants or hotels for their New Year's Eve dinners, saving a lot of trouble and time.

At midnight on New Year's Eve, some head to temples to burn "the First Incense," where they make their wishes for the new year. One custom remains a fixture as families visit relatives and hand out red envelopes to the children over the following days.

Nowadays some families leave Shanghai after New Year's Eve here and head to holiday venues in China or abroad. Most of the people who stay in Shanghai enjoy strolling around downtown. The City God Temple is always popular and is usually very busy at this time.

The fifth day of the lunar new year is another important day. This is when people welcome the God of Wealth by setting off firecrackers (the louder the better - legend has it that the god only visits the homes with the loudest crackers). From midnight the sound of crackers will be exploding again throughout the city.

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