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Around Chinese New Year, children had the custom of burning firecrackers very much for the festive excitement of the loud noise. Businessmen would treat these firecrackers more seriously. Some would pay to fire long strings of them accompanied by noisy lion dancing to bring them luck and prosperity for the New Year.
We had to be careful especially with the bigger crackers. The blast can cause injuries especially to the eyes and fingers. A safer way is to stand them on the ground, light the short fuse on top usually with a smothering joss stick, and back away. But often for more excitement, we would hold individual cracker, light the cracker's fuse with the joss stick, and throw it away before it blasts off.
And being typical boys living in the upper floors, we would sometimes throw the crackers down to the street below where in this crowded city, there would very likely be people including women and children walking along the pavements.
What we did is frightening to others. But the attitude at that time was that we would also receive the same treatment when we had to walk along the streets. Traditionally Chinese New Year is the period when we would wear new clothes to go visiting our relatives to offer our well wishes for the New Year. Thus we would also very likely be out on the streets visiting.
I remember we had to be extra careful visiting a very old and senior relative. She lived on a street where residents, some adults, enjoy throwing down many big firecrackers. We had to walk through this street as fast as we could, like going through a war zone.
During this period, we also played with fire-arrows. They are like a firecracker with a stick at the fuse end. When the fire from a burning fuse spreads to the gunpowder inside, instead of exploding, the fire ejects at the fuse end propelling the cracker forward like a tiny rocket.
Sometimes in my naughty childhood mood, I would aim to fire these fire-arrows at the balcony of my classmate who lived opposite. It would be bad if the fire-arrow got into the house and damage say the curtain or sofa.
There had been reports of accidental injuries due to these firecrackers and bigger fireworks. In subsequent years, I think since the early 1960s when there were protest riots in neighbouring China, the burning and selling of these was banned in Hong Kong. This was not only to stop the above unsafe practice. It was also for internal security reason, to avoid people getting hold of gunpowder inside these firecrackers and fireworks to make small bombs.
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Originally Posted by The Blue Pencil
(thank you) I remember the smell of those firecrackers, especially the next morning when for some reason it was a thrill to go searching to see how many crackers had made their way into our backyard.
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