Monday, November 05, 2012

Communal Activities Build The Community.



 
Roberto Matta.

It is 5th of November today, in England it is Guy Fawkes Day which will be remembered with fireworks and burning bonfires.

Fireworks are in my opinion too dangerous for people to use as they do; I think it would be a much better idea if towns were to organize firework displays.

Which the entire town can enjoy together instead of everyone buying their own fireworks they can all have a bigger display if it’s a community affair.

Every New Years Eve I wish that they adopted that approach also here in the Netherlands; it would make the whole event much safer if it were done.

Instead of individuals it should be the towns and cities that organise the firework displays for everyone to enjoy.

In the Netherlands people get very competitive with the fireworks, many people go to Belgium get fireworks that would not be legal here.

Some of these fireworks sound too much like ammunition going off which is worrying, especially when one does not know it is going to happen.

In 1982 I thought I was in the middle of a war zone when what I thought sounded like Beirut being shelled seemed to be occurring on my street.

Finally I plucked up courage and peeked out from behind the curtains, and then I could see that it was only fireworks that were being let off and not explosives.

1982 was the first year that people had decided to let off fireworks, this was because there were no longer allowed to burn their Christmas trees to bring in the New Year.

Burning Christmas trees on the last day of the year was an old tradition here in the Netherlands which has been stopped by the authorities.

The new tradition of letting off fireworks is far more dangerous than bonfires ever were, and they are expensive too.

Perhaps it is because the former was more communal than fireworks that burning Christmas trees was banned in the Netherlands.

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