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February 09, 2005
Firecracker Ceremony
I sacrificed a cheap lunch to go out and catch the firecracker ceremony during this first day of the Chinese New Year. Evidently many people had the same idea and went to witness the event.
Now, I am familiar with firecrackers, having played with them during my childhood. The firecrackers that I am used to when I was a child were short-fused, and since during the daytime you won't be able to tell immediately if the fuse is lit or not, you tend to devise other ways of lighting them.
One of the easiest and safest way of lighting firecrackers is by putting the fuse on a piece of tissue paper and lighting it instead of the fuse. Of course, I only did this with only my brother around - big boys don't play with burning tissue paper.
I've forgotten how loud firecrackers were and since I was going to shoot them, I won't have my hands free to cover my ears. Only for good measure, I used my iPod earphones for some protection. But even then... my ears were ringing hours after the event ended.
For something that was held during a weekday, it was quite well attended; I could only imagine the crowds if the Chinese New Year was ever made a public holiday in NYC.
Posted by quickness at February 9, 2005 08:23 PM