Fireworks

Fireworks are a part of daily life here – sales appear to be unregulated and they are let off all year round (and round the clock) for no other apparent reason than people like the noise!

The church even uses them at certain times of the year to summon the congregation, or at least to remind them to pray. They appear to be an integral part of some celebrations, and at regular times someone will let off one or more rockets, even setting them off from the middle of a crowded street. There is one particular celebration where they are let off on the hour, every hour, round the clock! It must be a nightmare for neighbours who have small children, or who need to sleep for work, but nothing ever seems to be done about it, and I never hear anyone complaining!

I have seen toddlers being given lit bangers to throw … “Throw, it, throw it, THROW IT!”, then it is slapped out of their hand! In the big cities they are used as an early warning system in the favelas (slums) to warn the drug dealers that the police are about – the sound carries incredibly well in the confined spaces of the cluttered housing (and also carries well here in the countryside as we are surrounded by hills!) – but here it just seems as though people like the sound, and have no concern, or even realisation, that others might be inconvenienced by it.