When I was quite young, I was at a birthday party. At the dinner table some bastard child set off on of those damn party poppers that are shaped like a champagne bottle and shot out streamers right in my face.
Since then I’ve always had an intense and irrational response to loud bangs and explosions.
So heading to the Yanshuei Firecracker Festival might seem a bit unusual. However, it would have to be one of the best things I’ve done in Taiwan so far.
“...the county hosts a fireworks ceremony in front of the Guan Yu Temple and then circulates around the whole town for 2 days. On January 15 at 8:30 pm, the Yanshuei fireworks are gathered together and set off in the Yanshuei High School playground.”
On the spur of the moment we decided to take the car up the expressway to the north of Tainan County for the fireworks festival. It was something distinctly Taiwanese and something you would not be able to do anywhere else in the world.
“It is said that the Yanshuei Fireworks started in July and August of the Guangsyu Emperor’s 11th year. Cholera was widespread in Yanshuei at that time. Because pre-modern medical care was inadequate, many people died. Residents were panic-stricken and prayed to the Guan Yu divinity to save them.”
In preparation we gathered the necessary safety wear.
“Though the Yanshuei Fireworks sometimes damages property and hurts people, this is not a good reason to ban this traditional folk activity.”
We found parking at an exorbitant price and wondered which way to go.
Follow the guys with helmets.
At 7.45 we passed through a road block and followed the crowds. We passed vendors and market stalls. The helmet, gloves and safety glasses merchants were doing a brisk trade.
As we passed, locals were setting the mood, launching fireworks outside their houses. The pedestrian traffic passed by without as much as blinking while I stood back fearing them ricocheting off nearby buildings.
The crowds built until we reached the main intersection between a police station and a 7-11 where thousands of people gathered in full mask motorbike helmets before a road block.
If everyone had been wearing the same colours it would have been scary, bringing back memories of riot police. As it stood however, they looked more like mismatched storm troopers at a Star Wars convention.
Levels of protection varied: from knee high children in shorts, sandals and tee shirts, young beetle nut chewers who only brought a rain jacket through to the hard core – young guys with super thick winter jackets and towels or foam padding taped to their helmets. Some chose to carry shields of clear plastic or cardboard.
We waited in the crowd about ten meters from the front to see what would happen.
The tension was building. Rockets and firecrackers were going off all over town. Bright, multi coloured, sulphurous lights casting shadows and silhouetting buildings.
“On the night of the Lantern Festival, the Guan Yu divinity ordered General Jhoucang to lead the way. The sedan chair of the divinity followed, with disciples behind it, setting off fireworks along the route. They went through the streets and alleys until dawn and drove away all the disease demons.”
At about 8.15 a giant, red float swung out from behind the road block, the tops covered with rockets the size of rolled up editions of the Sunday Times.
A huge “Wahhhhhaaooooo” came up from the crowd.
A man on top the float took off the covers and made preparations.
We looked up at the neighbouring buildings and saw faces crowed around the windows. The steps of the police station were a blanket of bike helmets.
Unfortunately my camera was running out of batteries so this is all the footage I managed to get:
What happened next was chaos.
At 8.30 some carts at the front started to rock back and forth as though possessed. There was a swak swak swak of thousands of face masks coming down on helmets.
A wave of tension and anticipation swept through the crowd.
The carts shook more violently and it was on...
It began with firecrackers
pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Then the bottle rockets fired directly out at the crowd.
swoop crack swoop swoop crack swoop crack swoop swoop crack swoop crack crack crack
I ducked as they sprayed out across the sea of helmets leaving trails of sparks.
They were coming from every where: over the tops of people’s heads, off the tops of people’s heads bouncing off buildings and scooting across the ground.
Exploding next to your head and right at your feet
The adrenalin raced, the heart pounded, screams from all directions
Then the big rockets of the top of the float went up -streaks of colour through the smoke and mist from inside the helmet’s visor.
It lasted maybe two minutes.
As soon as it stopped the crowd was on the move. The carts, maybe four or five of them, followed by an ambulance and a fire-engine moved down the street to our left. We were swept along in the crush.
One thing that Taiwanese people are good at, it’s getting ahead of the pack. There was pushing and jostling through to the next stop: a school.
We found a place in the throng and waited; maybe ten or fifteen minutes and it stared again:
Carts rocking violently
Visors snapped
“Wahhhhhaaooooo”
pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
swoop crack swoop swoop crack swoop crack swoop swoop crack swoop crack crack crack
Rockets lighting up the night sky
R caught one on the leg. That would leave a mark. Another pinged off her helmet.
I was too busy holding up small children to deflect the fiery onslaught
Then the carts, pulled by ultra protected faithful, were off again. As they passed I managed to get a peek inside, through their Perspex shields. It looked like some sort of golden deity but it was hard to make out.
We followed them up until they stopped outside a temple.
Across the street a string of fountain fireworks were lit and the sparks poured down on the crowd for about ten minutes.
All over town a myriad of coloured flowers filled the sky. Screams and plumes of smoke came other centres where attacks on the disease demons were taking place.
More carts came up from behind and joined the ones at the centre of the crowd.
We waited.
And waited
All of a sudden a behemoth float came out from a side street (I later noticed it came straight out of a temple).
“Waaaahhhhhhhhaaaaaoooooooo”
Visors slapped down, carts rocked, people began jumping from foot to foot – a practice we soon learned to stop the rockets going off up your trouser leg.
Another float came from the other end.
We were trapped.
And it was on:
pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop poppop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
swoop crack swoop swoop crack swoop crack swoop swoop crack swoop crack crack crack swoop crack swoop swoop crack swoop crack swoop swoop crack swoop crack crack crack crack crack crack
Rockets
When the rain of fire subsided we moved closer to the point of impact.
Outside the temple a group of young guys, jacked up on adrenalin, yelled at each other over their sudden deafness. They were hyped. The backs of their ski jackets were burnt and the foam padding was hanging out.
These guys were the avant-guard – the ones standing right at the front with their backs to the wall of bottle rockets.
We managed to get up and have a look at the float:
It was about three meters tall, six meters long and two meters wide. The first two meters of its height were racks where literally thousands bottle rockets - row upon row of them, all facing directly out into the crowd.
The ground was covered with rocket refuse. Your feet didn’t even touch the ground for the spent cartridges.
There were more screams from the crowd around the city and there were more people coming in as we decided to move off and find some dinner.
Heading back the way we came, less organised fireworks displays were happening in the streets.
In the middle of the road we came across three guys who had gathered a crowd. They had a string of those red firecrackers, maybe about six meters long. The guy in the middle wrapped it around his neck. The other two held the ends out to his left and right.
They lit the end of the firecrackers. He span around.
pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
Crazy bastard!
As we sat down at a street vendors stall to enjoy peppery noodles on a sizzling hotplate with a cracked egg and big lump of pork, we reflected on the experience:
Exciting more than fun but definitely a buzz
As I say, it would have to be one of the best things I’ve done in Taiwan....
...so far.
