Hawaiians, or at least the residents of the Big Island in this beautiful little state, really love their fireworks on New Years Day. I'm not sure whether it’s because the weather is warmer allowing for more outdoor activities, the strong Chinese influence, or the near nonexistent fireworks regulations, but the locals really do enjoy ushering in the new year by blowing up a chunk of their state.
Starting from around 8pm, the neighbors in our small cul-de-sac had a steady stream of fireworks flowing four hours straight until midnight. At first, we thought it might simply be the eccentricities of our neighbors, but the air around our neighborhood was soon punctuated by the continuous cacophony of the steady staccato beat of detonating explosives. When we went to downtown Kona to check out the sights, people were tossing fireworks into the streets (disrupting traffic continuously), launching them into the ocean, or just firing them off randomly for sheer entertainment. On the mountainside above, you could see streams of green and red sparks launched from the neighborhoods above, regularly punctuating the smoky, sulphuric veil with brilliant bursts of color.
Our neighbors really topped it off though. They had been blowing up thousand string firecrackers all evening, and for the grand finale, raised a rope with twelve three thousand count lines to represent each month. Attached to one was a ten thousand line firecracker chain that seemed to go on for a long time. While this pyrotechnic display deafened us, they ignited fountain after fountain of sparks to keep pace with the seemingly endless chain of explosions.
My father explained to me that the Chinese originally lit firecrackers during the New Year to drive off devils. Given the small arsenal of explosives that were lit in this cul-de-sac this New Years, I think that every single devil on the entire island of Hawaii has been driven into the sea.
