Going totally crackers_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Going totally crackers

That's why I welcomed the Lunar New Year, because the fireworks would be spontaneous instead of organized, and paid for by individuals instead of government organizations. Guess what? I got more than I hoped for.

This was the first time I had spent a Spring Festival in Beijing, so I could not compare it with 2008. Some of my colleagues told me last year's was even more excessive. Still, I could not detect any sign of moderation.

The original purpose of fireworks was to frighten away evil spirits that were supposed to show up at the end of the year. Who are these spirits? I don't know. If they include the apparition of economic recession, it was nowhere in sight.

I did not know the fifth day of the Lunar New Year has a special meaning. Fireworks on that day are supposed to bring good fortune. So, anyone who owns a business hits the streets and sets off strings of crackers. But I didn't know there were so many businesses in the community where I reside. I could count just a handful of restaurants, but obviously the residential compound houses an amazing number of small offices. The length and intensity of the fireworks on that night exceeded the one on New Year's Eve and kept my baby daughter from sleeping.

Then came the Lantern Festival, the last day of the holiday, and the tragedy that the authorities probably feared all along. Investigators have concluded industry-grade fireworks, the kind used for the Olympics, caused the massive fire that engulfed the annex building of the new CCTV headquarters. The whole operation was illegal because it never applied for the permission required for these kinds of fireworks, and CCTV staff ignored police intervention before the building caught fire.