Fiery Monkey

In South Africa especially this year the monkey has became a taboo in terms of racism but the Chinese, the Year of the Monkey is about to start on the 8 February, not just any monkey but a fiery monkey.

In the Chinese calendar, there are 12 animals which are allocated a year, and associated with the animals are 5 elements, metal, water, wood, fire, and earth which means that Fire and Monkey combination recur every 60 years. So what does this Fiery Monkey mean to the Chinese, well to them this year will be an ambitious and adventurous, but irritable year.

The weeks leading up the Chinese New Year are celebrated in different places around Johannesburg with the first welcoming of the New Year tonight at the Old Chinatown which has the best fireworks display anywhere in South Africa and the only one I really enjoy because it is in downtown Joburg CBD, far far away from any animals and pets. Next Sunday will be the main event at the Nan Hua Temple Buddhist temple outside Bronkhorstspruit. The following Saturday 13 February will be New Chinatown’s turn of welcoming the monkey in.

No I am not a Buddhist but I enjoy going to Old Chinatown for the awesome fireworks display. This photo below is my favourite of the evening because there is something about it that intrigues me especially that person on the bottom right. It was taken handheld with my point and shoot Canon camera on the wrong settings. The overall affect is a blurred photo that has this eerie feel to it. Not a planned affect but I love it. To me it shows how distorted the world has become with a vague hazy view what is to come when we try to make sense of the future.

The following photo was taken with my Samsung cellphone of the same scene seconds apart as my favourite photo. This one shows that maybe we should change this Year of the Monkey and call it the Year of the Cellphone.

To see more photos of the celebrations, check out my Facebook album Fiery Monkey