After a week of celebrating, the Chinese New Year festivities begin to fade a bit, people are stuffed to the gills from all the rich holiday foods, and the novelty begins to wear off. But there’s one sound that you can hear all the way through the holidays, and that’s the sound of firecrackers.

I’m Andrew Ryan and in today’s Ear to the Ground, I bring you the story behind the explosive side of the lunar new year.