I've seen the photos from the past few years of Chinese New Year celebrations here in Philly and I finally got around to heading up to Chinatown to see it in person yesterday. It was cold out and starting to flurry, but there was a sizable crowd out to watch shit get blown up an dragon dancers prance and drummers bang away. I took a few shots, nothing outstanding. I got stuck behind the drummers after staking out a spot to get a clear line of sight for one set of firecrackers. Arg.
I can assure anyone who didn't make it out or hasn't experienced it in person, it's smoky as hell and noisy as you can possibly imagine. If I stayed to watch for the entire day, I would've definitely done some serious damage to my ear drums. Every person there who was working had earplugs; I wish I had a pair for the hour or so I was there. And the smoke from the thousands and thousands of jumping jack rope of firecrackers was nuts as you can see in the shot below.
It was interesting to see the teams of dragon dancers switch off during different parts of their dances. I'm sure it served a dual purpose of simple proximity of the smoke and them getting tired after a bit; they're really moving and jumping around.
There were a few politicians making their rounds too. Andy Toy, running for City Council At-Large was there - I was just at a house party for his campaign before heading up to Chinatown. Councilman Frank DiCicco (District 1) was there. As were mayoral hopefuls US Congressman Bob Brady (PA-01) and PA Congressman Dwight Evans (PA-203). There were tons of people handing out Toy's campaign literature. I picked up a button at the house party. I plan on rocking it on my jacket for the next few months.
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