New Zealand's Firecracker Day

In New Zealand the fifth of November is a special occasion, Guy Fawkes' Day. The chinese people who live here usually refer to it as "Firecracker Day," because only on this day is it legal to set off fireworks. Stores are allowed to sell fireworks for about ten days prior to Guy Fawkes' Day. Although theoretically one is only supposed to let off firecrackers on Guy Fawkes' Day proper, in reality they begin exploding as soon as the stores start to sell. Because the preceding days are not formal holidays, they can't compare to the actual day itself, when the air is filled with blossoming puffs of smoke, but they are still completely gratifying.

Guy Fawkes' Day commemorates England's "patriot" Guy Fawkes. In 1605 James I was king. He was a dissolute monarch, and the citizens of Britain languished under his rule. Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators hid gunpowder and fuses in the parliament building in the hopes of doing away with the evil king and his parliament. Unfortunately, their scheme misfired; Guy Fawkes and his accomplices were executed. Nowadays, Britain and a few commonwealth countries celebrate this day in memory of the event.

Although Firecracker Day is a traditional Western holiday, it more or less stands as a day of great glory for the Chinese, because all the fireworks sold on the market come from mainland China, and this naturally reminds everyone that gunpowder was one of the "four great inventions of the Chinese." China is the birthplace of firecrackers.

In the evening of Guy Fawkes' Day, besides setting off fireworks in their own gardens, people swarm to the beaches to set off firecrackers and join in the merriment. Most of them are descendants of Chinese immigrants. Men and women, young and old, they buy a great volume of firecrackers. Some even carry crates, loaded like private armories, and they enjoy the festive atmosphere to their hearts' content.

In New Zealand, where tranquility usually reigns supreme and the population is both small and sparsely distributed, only on the two nights of Firecracker Day and New Year's Eve is there an opportunity for a noisy, raucous good time.

Chinese living here arrange to meet in friends' homes and have barbecues in their gardens. In the communities where Chinese congregate, there is a smell of firecrackers and sizzling meat everywhere.

For those of us living in this alien country, compared to other major holidays, such as Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese Lunar New Year, Firecracker Day is obviously the most festive day around. Tinted with the hues of China, it is rightfully called a "big day."