Is Spring Festival without fireworks applaudable?

As the Spring Festival draws near, the debate over whether China should ban or allow the use of fireworks is once again in the spotlight. The "ban or allow" question got a fresh lease of life at the end of 2025 when Shanxi province withdrew its decade-long prohibition on fireworks. Fireworks may appear trivial, yet they sit at the intersection of tradition and modernity, identity and regulation, public order and private emotion.

For centuries, fireworks have marked the ritual transition from one year to the next. In Chinese culture, there is something symbolic about the thunderous sound and flash of light that accompanies fireworks: it is believed that the loud noise drives away evil spirits and bad luck, while the bright light illuminates the year ahead.

For many people, the sensory experience — loud enough to startle, bright enough to astonish — is something inseparable from their memories of "celebrating the New Year".

But the realities of modern urban life have unsettled this tradition. The effects of smoke and noise get multiplied in dense megacities, increasing safety risks. The risk to public safety and the cost to the environment are immense. Faced with multiple pressures, many local governments adopted the simplest answer: a blanket ban. The result? The air became cleaner and there were fewer accidents. But the cultural implications were not small. In a survey among Jinan residents in Shandong province, nearly one-third said that the ban diluted the festive atmosphere. Without the sound and spectacle, the holiday felt incomplete — like New Year's Eve without dumplings.

The Spring Festival holiday is China's most important traditional holiday, combining harvest celebration, ancestral ritual, respect for elders, family reunion, social interaction and leisure. It holds the emotional DNA of Chinese society: harmony, kinship, peace, gratitude, forgiveness and reunion. "Whether rich or poor, go home for the New Year" is not a slogan — it reflects a deep cultural impulse.

Today, roughly one-fifth of the world's population celebrates Lunar New Year in various forms. Nearly 20 countries, from Vietnam to the Republic of Korea to Singapore, recognize it as a public holiday. In 2023, the Spring Festival became an official UN holiday; in 2024, it was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Beyond being a cultural anchor for Chinese communities worldwide, it has become a showcase for China's cultural vitality and soft power. To safeguard and transmit it is both an honor and a responsibility.

Given the tension between cultural protection and social governance, a more balanced approach is needed. Instead of asking whether to "ban or allow" fireworks, policymakers should ask "how to manage" it. A uniform ban is rarely optimal. Shifting toward a model of "targeted restriction plus limited allowance" could create a workable compromise. Some cities have already tried it: in Guyuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, fireworks are prohibited near government offices, hospitals and forests but allowed at designated sites during specific hours on New Year's Eve, Lantern Festival and other traditional dates. These measures preserve both tradition and safety.

Technology can also offer solutions. Fireworks manufacturers could reduce explosive intensity, lower polluting emissions and develop cleaner, more controlled forms of fireworks.

Electronic firecrackers — sound without smoke — have become increasingly popular. Ensuring safety requires compliance with uniform standards and product specifications. Improving realism and user experience would further expand consumer acceptance.

At the same time, society should discourage competitive displays and extravagance. The spirit of the holiday is not in the decibel level but in the warmth of reunion and the hope for a better year.

Fireworks are a prism through which we see the complex struggle between old and new, emotion and rationality, individual desire and collective responsibility in a rapidly changing society. Precision governance requires balancing enforcement costs, public compliance, emergency response and environmental objectives. Total prohibition cannot capture the full meaning of the practice; complete freedom cannot accommodate today's realities.

The goal is not to "win" but to seek a wiser balance. At the policy level, there is a need to refine and humanize regulation; draw boundaries without erasing tradition.

At the technological level, entities should innovate toward cleaner and safer products. At the societal level, sustainable forms of celebration should be promoted. At the individual level, we should rediscover the emotional core of the holiday — family, reunion, remembrance and hope.

Only through such balance can we protect our blue skies and quiet nights while allowing the essence of Spring Festival — its symbolism of renewal, its celebration of kinship and its belief in a brighter year ahead — to endure and be passed down from generation to generation.

The author is a professor at the Advanced Institute for Confucian Studies, Shandong University; and vice-chairman of the China Folklore Society.

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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