Last night, at midnight, we were rudely awakened by fireworks right in front of our house!
I was really so angry so I went out to see. Believe it not, it was a man with two very young children playing with very, very loud cracking fireworks at midnight. What a totally ignorant man setting such a bad example for the two children!
For a few moments of crazy “fun”, the children (or the man himself!) could have been injured. There are babies in the neighbourhood and they must have been so frightened. Riley was. She totally jumped from her sleep beside me and ran helter-skelter to hide under the sofa. My husband was awakened by the thunderous cracking sound.
And what about birds who were already asleep in their nests? And other small animals? Even dogs would be frightened and many years ago, a friend’s dog leapt over their fence and after a few days, landed up in my neighbourhood. Luckily I recognised her because I was the one who rescued her and my friend adopted her. Her home was so far away from our neighbourhood. She must have just run in panic.
So I called the police (as did I last year too). They did not come this time, and even if they had, it would have been too late, because I think the man probably saw me on the phone and he left with the two children after that. Last year, the police came on a motorbike and called me after that (no, the policeman missed last year’s nuisance-makers too). This year, they did not even bother to come.
Why make fireworks a prohibitive item and then when we report, they don’t do anything about it??
So I wrote in my neighbourhood chat group to appeal to these nuisance-makers to please have a heart and stop playing with fireworks and I sent the image above. Plus this below. I hope they read it and will consider not doing it next year or for any other festivals (Chinese New Year is coming….sigh).
People of yesteryears were ignorant and thought that lighting fireworks would scare away the “nian” (some monster from some river in China) and other evil spirits. The monster was thought to be afraid of the colour red as well, hence, the wearing of red attire and burning of firecrackers during Chinese New Year.
But people, this is the 21st century now. If there are any evil spirits, it’s the ignorance in us. Drive that away by having some common sense and compassion for others and educate yourself, please. Burning firecrackers and wearing red isn’t going to make us any smarter, seriously!
You can still wear all the red you want, from head to toe, but please, please, please, stop lighting fireworks and firecrackers.