Spring Festival is a time for family and blowing shit up, but since I grew up in Virginia without extended family or illegal fireworks, Chinese New Year got lost between the fanfare of Christmas and the narcissistic revelry of my birthday. Kowtowing to my parents for a red envelope became a formality – like a lapsed Catholic going to Christmas mass – before it was stopped altogether. I left China at the age of four, which means I must have celebrated Spring Festival when I was very young. I have no memories of it, though. So when I came back to China in late 2007, I was excited to celebrate Spring Festival the right way – with family and explosions.

One of the best parts about staying in Beijing over Chinese New Year is the chance to attend the temple fairs. Food stalls serve up goodies from chuan’r to cotton candy, while carnival games let you shoot, throw or guess your way to a bundle of cuddly stuffed animals. This year, expect plenty of dragon paraphernalia as well. All you have to do is pick which ones to go to and work on your pitching arm in the meantime.

The smoke has finally cleared from the city (yeah ok, the smoke never really clears over Beijing, but at least the smoke directly attributable to fireworks has gone) and the firework frenzy has ended for another year. Over at World of Chinese magazine, they have amusingly charted “How Foreigners Experience Spring Festival in China” on a graph.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, also known as “Lantern Festival,” which officially marks the end of the new year celebrations. That means one final orgy of pyrotechnic action across the city before fireworks are banned in urban areas for another year. In response to a steep increase in firework-related fires this year, local authorities have tightened restrictions on places where fireworks can be let off in anticipation of tomorrow’s activities.

Disappointingly CCTV again failed to deliver a spectacle to match the amazing fireball extravaganza of 2009 that saw the station sacrifice their own building in downtown Beijing for the sake of Chinese New Year festivities – but that doesn’t mean this year’s holiday hasn’t seen its fair share of human and architectural casualties.

According to Xinhua, “China's Spring Festival fireworks setting frenzy caused 194 fires in Beijing in the first six days of the week-long holiday, which was 99 more than in the same period last year.” Way to go Beijing! There were also 388 firework-related injuries in the city (including one casualty who apparently “received an eyeball removal surgery”) and at least two fatalities.