the day after Chinese New Year

The red remnants from the firecracker that greeted the first day of Chinese New Year the previous day were left on the streets, for they symbolised prosperity and luck for the new year and no one in their right mind would want their prosperity to be swept into the drains.

The streets were surprisingly silent considering it was the second day of the lunar new year. Residents were either entertaining their visitors or out doing visiting themselves. Children no longer played on the streets with their friends and relatives who visited, instead now cooped up in rooms gaming or socialising through social media and networks.

Kenopsia. That was the word I needed to describe this lingering feeling I had wandering along the street, camera in hand.

n. The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet—a school hallway in the evening, an unlit office on a weekend, vacant fairgrounds—an emotional afterimage that makes it seem not just empty but hyper-empty, with a total population in the negative, who are so conspicuously absent they glow like neon signs. 

via

 It was just two midnights ago when everyone came out of their houses to admire the display of fireworks neighbours had trolleyed out, to admire with their hands shielding their ears to watch the firecrackers, some holding out their cameras to capture the magnificent spectacle before their eyes.

And now? All there was left was a reminder of what happened two midnights ago- red bits and pieces from the firecrackers, and boxes of used firework cartons and rubbish from reunion dinner piled in garbage bins in front of various housings.

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The small narration above was inspired by the photo taken on the second day of Chinese New Year.  I thought it'll be interesting to dig up photos I'd taken and try to recall the story or what happened, or make up one on the spot.