It seems that ghosts in China are no longer content to spook people in decrepit ancient houses and graveyards. Also, with the old areas in Shanghai being torn down at a rapid rate they’re rapidly finding themselves homeless in large numbers, the word on the street is that they officially want in on the property boom in Shanghai.
To combat this, every time someone moves into a new apartment they let off firecrackers to scare the ghosts away (try shouting BANG next time you’re haunted by a ghostly apparition in your bedroom and you’ll see how effective this ploy is).
Unfortunately, when you’re living in a new apartment complex this basically means someone’s going to be letting them off every day, or every Saturday and Sunday to be exact, generally at around 9 am, which is still the middle of the night as far as I’m concerned.
Anyway, here’s a video clip I took today of how this deafening exorcism proceeds, apparently part of the ritual is to almost blow your hands off with the big ones.
Edit: Actually, I’d be amazed if there are any ghosts left in Shanghai after this:
40,000 firecrackers in ten seconds
4 Comments
i love that one guy lighting them with his CIGARETTE!
Actually they’re all lighting them with cigarettes, I see what you mean though, he does have a certain “elan”.
I’m a bit confused as to why the guy’s hand isn’t blown off, is it some special kung fu grip that they use? And in that second clip the cameraman’s laughter is enough to scare the ghosts away.
It must be Woai, if you look when he lights the second one, he’s equally surprised that he still has all his limbs.