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Ring in the New Year and fire the firecrackers
Read by Brenda, a real human and author of this article
Most people know that the Chinese invented fireworks, but who knew that they initially used them to scare off huge mountain men? One has to wonder who these men were and why they needed scaring off in the first place. But it was in Italy that fireworks were further refined and made colorful. Leave it to the Italians to make what used to be just explosions into something beautiful.
Fireworks have come a long way since their invention in ancient China. They are now used to celebrate not just the New Year, but the Fourth of July in the U.S., Guy Fawkes Night in the UK, and countless other events worldwide.
When I first arrived in Germany, I was amazed to learn that anyone can buy fireworks for New Year’s. They go on sale at the end of the year, and some people start setting them off right away, which is why the last few days of December — and occasionally the first few days of January — are filled with the sound of random explosions. This contrasts sharply with the U.S., where the sale of fireworks is restricted to municipalities, which put on elaborate public displays. These have the advantage of being confined geographically and time-wise. So if you’d rather go home, make some hot chocolate, and read a book, you’d never even know fireworks were going off.
