Happy New Year, everyone. Hope you had a safe and enjoyable New Year’s Eve. So many people look forward to New Year’s Eve each year and celebrate it in such different ways. Couples share romantic dinners, complete with candlelight and
Happy New Year, everyone. Hope you had a safe and enjoyable New Year’s Eve.
So many people look forward to New Year’s Eve each year and celebrate it in such different ways.
Couples share romantic dinners, complete with candlelight and champagne.
Others prefer to party the night away, indulging in drinks, dancing and kisses at midnight.
Still others choose to usher in the new year, watching TV and counting down the minutes until the Times Square Ball drops its prescribed 141 feet in the customary 60 seconds.
In many places around the world, though, fireworks have always been a huge part of New Year’s celebrations.
For years, Hawaii (including Kauai) was one of them.
Anyone who has lived on Kauai for decades probably still remembers when New Year’s Eve meant festive neighborhood parties. They were always potluck events, often with way more food than everyone could possibly polish off at one sitting. It was not uncommon for tinfoil-covered paper plates full of food to be taken home from New Year’s parties.
At these parties, there was also fellowship, fun and lots of fireworks.
Party guests would add their stash of firecrackers to an ever-growing pile at the party. Hosts and friends would erect contraptions (sometimes quite elaborate) to hang the strings of firecrackers so they could be set off safely (without endangering anyone) and effectively, generating the most noise and excitement possible.
Exactly at midnight the fuse would be lit and the spectacle would begin, culminating in one huge blast of pyrotechnic glory that was over just minutes after it had begun.
Fireworks were readily available in the stores in those days. There were no restrictions (other than age) You could buy whatever your pocketbook would allow. In later years, small stands sprang up around the island a week or so before New Year’s Eve. Business must have been lucrative; they were there year after year.
Slowly though, the prevailing attitude toward fireworks shifted from permissive to preventive.
Noise, of course, was the most common complaint but so was concern about how those with pulmonary problems like asthma were being affected.
Injuries were also cited. Firecrackers held too long in children’s hands blew up.
Aerial fireworks were available for secret scale from fireworks stands also became an issue. House fires caused by aerial fireworks became more common.
Eventually, all of this led to required permits and the ensuing restrictions. Today, you need a permit to buy fireworks, and there is a limit on how much you can buy.
Hotels sponsor spectacular fireworks shows – which all can enjoy without any risk or danger.
Yes, times have changed but we have caused them to do so in large part.
But those of us lucky enough to have lived here during the days when fireworks ruled, will never forget the fun, excitement and beauty of those years.
Aloha.
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Rita De Silva is the former editor of The Garden Island and a Kapaa resident.
