China Tactics

My ears are in recovery from a gloriously noisy Chinese new year celebration.

   !!!!!!!!

I find it incredible the way we have come to see and use sound as a way to bring joy, luck and so on and particulalry interesting that the Chinese have gone at it with such gusto; you will find people lighting the obligatory firecrackers when you move house, weddings and so on to bring luck and good fortune. The Chinese figured that if fircrackers scare people, then they will certainly scare spirits...in particularly a nasty spirit called Nian - who was thought to eat crops and people. Now they are an essentail part of the culture.

Of course, we all do this; We have our bells (especially good for exorcists - they are said to have particular tones for specific demons) and other religons / cultures have a simaler affinity with sound and the bringing of luck - normally through the ridding of "evil spirits". If this is even slightly true then my family will be having a bumper crop, and almost certainly none of us will be eaten.

- Posted by James Nash - 8:43:23 PM - Comment? Rules: Criticize ideas? Yes. Criticize people for holding those ideas? No. []