Musings of a fickle mind

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year Fireworks

I'm from a city where fireworks are banned. So, commonly loud and bright holidays such as Christmas and New Year's are ridiculously quiet. What's more, the streets are literally empty. To compensate for such a dreary setting, we settle with blowing horns and banging random objects to defeat the silence. We also prepare a bunch of yummy food to satisfy ourselves. This has generally been the case for almost 10 years.

Nevertheless, this year I had the opportunity of celebrating with my father's side of the family in his hometown. Behold, we had fireworks! It's not that I was not used to the fireworks, it's just that I haven't experienced this kind in a long time (the kind of Chinese fireworks being sold for home use). These fireworks were lit at a very close proximity, so I heard those bomb-like explosions, saw the colorful flames shooting into the air and felt the heat emanating from them. The atmosphere could be characterized as being loud and bright, as opposed to the bleak and quiet setting back home. At the end of it all, what was left was burnt pieces of paper and debris on the streets across.

The experience was not new at all, but was definitely a deviation from what was the routine for many years. It's nice to have a literally loud New Year's Eve once in a while.

Once again, Happy New Year to you all.