November 5th - A celebration lost forever?

Are they celebrating a failed coup, or is it a good excuse to burn stuff, blow stuff up, and generally annoy Fuzzy? This is one of those questions that has its own built-in answer.

I am a pretty patriotic guy, but here in the U.S. July 4th is pretty much an excuse for people to get drunk, barbeque, and shoot bottle rockets at each other. i used to live beside Tellico Lake in Tennessee, and the Naval battles that took place between all houseboats was somthing to behold. It has about as much to do with history or patriotism as it does with Chinese New year, IMHO.

/me got confused... thought for a minute fuzzy had gone democratic on us!

It's hard to do a whole lot of celebrating on a Tuesday night, much easier on weekends!

Today is November 11...[in Oz]...which is Rememberance Day...when we pause at 11.00 am for a minute's silence and remember all those who fought and died in all the wars to protect Australia.

Often in Adelaide, when the F1 Grand Prix was there [the end of the season], it would fall on that day, and there was nothing more eerie than 100+ thousand people and millions of dollars of machinery totally silent....

A few weeks ago it was the MotoGP at Phillip Island, and there was me on Start-Finish, with a grid full of GP bikes, surrounded by hundreds of people, [virtually none of them Aussies...mostly Japanese, actually], and we paused for the minute to remember the people killed in Bali...

BTW, most states in Oz banned the sale of fireworks [apart from professionals] because they are so damn dangerous.
I remember as a kid a three-penny bunger....was the size of a stick of Dynamite [and not much 'tamer']...and know of one friend who needed severe skin grafts after someone dropped a lit cracker into his pocket [wher all of his were]...He's dead, now, and then there was the guy who branched out into 'bigger' rockets, managing to ignite some ether and took off 3 fingers...[they went further than the rocket did]...

In the Middle East they like to shoot AK47s into the air, in more 'civilized' communities they'd rather blow up pets....

I hate "Bonfire Night", as it's called here in England. My dog, Poppy, ain't too keen on it either.

I would like to see it banned completely. And anyone who disagrees with me should visit their local hospital on November 6th, and take a look at all the small children who are mamed by fireworks every year.( And there are usually thousands of them).

Hawaii is nuts for fireworks. The New Year's eve night before this last one had so much smoke that in some places cars couldn't see two feet in front of them. Now they have a lot of bans and you pay big fees if you want to use them. It is getting better, and people are surprisingly compliant.

They used to hang these big rolls of crackers in trees, some of them had thousands of small crackers. No telling how many birds die that night. It was hard to breathe and there were many fires and injuries.

It's called population control...if you're too stupid to respect the power of gunpowder, then you're probably too stupid to live. Don't blame your ignorance (or that of your mates) of fireworks for the accidents that happen. I've used/played with fireworks for many years, and the only people I've seen get hurt deserved it. (acting stupidly - I've seen more people get hurt with sticks or driving very fast around a track).

Hawaii has a rich chinese population, where fireworks are a traditional method of banishing evil spirits. I spent a lot of my adolecsent years there (78-81, 85-87) and I thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks. I know for a fact that thousands, if not millions, more birds have perished as a result of 'haole' infestation than have from fireworks. Most of the 'big rolls' are hung from lamp posts, goodmorphing...

Peff...Australia, too has a large Chinese/Asian population [as you'd expect, considering where we are] and they are entitled to use fireworks ...Chinese New Year, etc as part of their religion/culture, but neither of the examples I gave were Chinese, just kids being idiots and/or victims...

You make my point, Jafo....Just kids being stupid..INHO, if their parents paid more attention to them (I believe they do more so in OZ than here) then they would be supervised and there wouldn't be so many victims. I must admit that my parents, although vigilent, had little control over what I, or my friends, did in our spare time. They did, however, take the time to show me the power that fireworks (using a watermelon) held. That demonstration squelched any desire I had to victimize my peers. Thank goodness!

It's sad, but I believe that parents that do not take the time to educate their children do not deserve them..

How true.
In most walks of life, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the younger you are, the more likely your knowledge will still be 'little'.
Often learning can be fatal....and it's a tad late as the sticks of imitation TNT go off to mutter 'oops'...

INHO = IMHO

Not any more... the Chinese population has a rich and beautiful culture indeed and I respect that. There are several other cultures over that use fireworks traditionally. One of the best things over here during that season are the lion dances (which includes the use of long rolls of firecrackers). I look forward to them all year. But there has developed a real problem with fireworks. And it has nothig to do with cultural celebrations. As far as I know, there are allowances made for that (they still use them appropriatly for various celebrations and I appreciate them when they do). They still have big beautiful displays on the beaches (from my rooftop I was able to see several distant displays) I have nothing against respectful use of the fireworks, but it really got out of hand for awhile. Now it is getting better.

I have been here since the late 70's and I have watched the changes. I am here now, and I have seen the current use. Perhaps if they had been confined to the lamp posts it would not have gotten so out of hand.

As far as Haole infestation... (that means white people) ... well..... I don't feel like an infestation. Most of my friends are either Chinese or Japanese. They don't treat me as an infestation. We don't blame each other for everything, mostly we don't even think about race. Sure there are things that happened historically that could have, should have gone diffently. All over the world it is so. But most of us are just people trying to live our lives. We can only work to make things better; nothing we can ever do will change history ... we can try not to repeat it, though.

Goodmorphing
>

Jafo: In the Middle East they like to shoot AK47s into the air, in more 'civilized' communities they'd rather blow up pets....

Erm, I don't suppose you are refering to the 'cat incident'? Another case of children with fireworks (which by law they shouldn't have) acting stupidly. They decided it might be fun to attach fireworks to a cat to see what happened. They blew it up...

p.s. feline - do not read this

Fuzzy...I don't know which 'specific' incedent you refer to..but it has happened many times in the past and I expect will happen again in the future.
Subtle word of warning...I personally will beat every shade of crap out of anyone I ever found doing that and do not give a toss for the consequences of my actions.
They'd spend the last of their lives eating through a straw... >

'incident'...

Mmm, New Year. The only day of the year that you can burn stuff and set off fireworks without getting your ass fined.

Oh, and I'll help Jafo out with cleaning up the morons.

/me hides his potato guns.

bkb parked his ether-powered potato bazooka 4 years ago in deference to the peace of mind of neighborhood potatophobes.