Party On

Fireworks for sale at Don Quijote market.

In Hawaii New Year's Eve has always been the principal fireworks holiday.

Everyone participated. As a 4-year old I waved my first sparklers, creating a figure-8 with the blue trail. The older boys threw cracker balls, trying to make each other jump. The men and women lit a few cherry packs ritualistically, then went back inside to enjoy food, drink, and conversation.

At midnight the patriarch of the family, then my grandfather and now my father, lit a string of 10,000 firecrackers hoisted on a ladder. Many of the other families in the neighborhood were doing the same, and the din was earsplitting. After watching for a few minutes, I would go inside to get away the noise and smoke.

July 4th in Hawaii has become a second fireworks holiday, mainly due to commercialization. Although the meaning of Independence Day is quite different in the Islands (where some believe that "independence" was forcibly taken away by the United States at the end of the 19th century), for most people the desire to have a good time overwhelms historical misgivings.

Party on. © 2013 Stephen Yuen