New Years Hawaiian Style

On this beautiful New Years Day morning, I was reading the blog of an acquaintance here on the island, and her description of the Hawaiian New Years phenomenon could not have been described any better . . .


"The first New Years Eve we spent here in Hawaii, we were warned about one of the biggest traditions on the island- firework mayhem. 4th of July in any major city does not hold a candle to the poppin bangin flashing screachin craziness that ensues on December 31st. On any holiday you usually hear some sets of fireworks, but after Christmas the celebration gradually builds until the New Year. As Hawaii is a cultural melting pot, the Chinese tradition of lighting fireworks to scare away bad spirits and bring luck for the new year is one that stuck. We were hardly prepared for it. I'm not talkin spinners and roman candles and a few bottle rockets...I'm talking hundreds to thousands of dollars of fireworks, per family. From dusk on, the island is blanketed in smoke and the sounds are what you might imagine a night in Baghdad might be like."


Boy, was she right. New Years here is absolutely insane. Individual families will spend thousands of dollars just on fireworks for this one night a year. Every night for the week or so before this holiday, we could here random fireworks popping here and there, sometimes on and off for hours. But on New Years Eve, the popping starts early in the morning and does not end until early on New Years Day morning (I'm talking five or six a.m.).

I wasn't even really watching the time that night, as I was busy getting caught up on my T.V. shows and surfing the internet. However, at one point it sounded like a full-blown war zone outside, so I looked at the clock, and sure enough it was midnight. I stepped outside to watch the fireworks for a few minutes, and the show was incredible. We live near the top of a small mountainous area, so I had a perfect view of the city of Kapolei down below, as well as a perfect view of the surrounding neighborhoods. Between the city display and the neighborhood displays, the celebration was quite spectacular. After ten minutes or so, the air was so thick with smoke that one could hardly see down into the valley anymore. The show continued for a couple more hours, which I fitfully slept through thanks to shutting the house up and turning on my bedroom T.V. I awoke at around 3:00 a.m. fully expecting to hear a continuation of the fireworks, but was pleasantly surprised to wake to no snapping sounds. I was confused for a moment, until I heard the soft patter of rain on the roof above my head.

It was one of those moments where I was thinking, thank God for rain.