Remember the 5th of November

The sadly predictable seasonal headline of a wildfire in Canterbury, investigators establishing that fireworks were the cause of the blaze as fire fighters continue work to contain it.

Rex Jefcoatt returned home to his Woodend Beach Holiday Park unit on Thursday night, having been one of the 130 people evacuated 24 hours earlier.

Although relieved to be back home, he described the events of the night before as "harrowing".

"Especially when you see the fire approaching as we did," he said.

"When we left property, we just weren't sure what we were going to find when we came back...which was a bit of a shock.”

It seems only the other day I was being the Grinch about Halloween, reader Tammie suggested “you need to rename your Facebook profile to the grinch of everything, need ya walking stick to shake koro”. Well Guy Fawkes I shake my walking stick in your general direction.

Every year the calls to do something get louder as we lose patience with people who set fireworks off all hours of the day and night. Not just on the day itself, or the nearest weekend like when we were kids, but unpredictably for weeks making it impractical to keep pets and animals safe. Numerous times we’ve had people setting them off at the park next to where we live, weeks after Guy Fawkes, at 7am or 8am in broad daylight – WTF?

But I’m not really a Grinch this time. I loved fireworks as a kid, so many great times at family friends or at home, a bonfire, sky rockets, Catherine wheels – often horizontal rather than vertical, Roman Candles – they were exciting evenings, things were different than other nights, we kids ran amok while the parents got merry.

The ultimate was to let a whole pack of Double Happys off at once, preferably near someone that had no idea. Much fun was had seeing what we could blow up, mainly plant material – it would never have occurred to us to involve animals, my mates and I were idiots but we weren’t assholes, well not in that regard.

A favourite was a pottery sculpture my parents had in the garden, it made a great noise and there was that element of risk – my god would it blow apart? I’m glad it didn’t blow apart – sorry mum – oh and for the hundreds of cigarette butts we put in it in the coming years – maybe we were assholes.

Then we got older, ahh fireworks and alcohol – the classic Kiwi combo, what could go wrong? When you were younger holding a double happy at the tip of your fingers as it went off seemed like a rite of passage, now all of a sudden holding a Roman Candle while it was going off was a good idea. I spent one Guy Fawkes night with my arm under the faucet after doing that with blisters the size of a 50-cent piece.

Aside from the risks of course there is the cost. At a time when there is a cost of living crisis these things are really expensive and families will feel under pressure to get them for their kids when there is no doubt far better use for that money. They’re so expensive people are stealing them.

Beyond fireworks there is a secondary question over celebrating Guy Fawkes on the 5th of November, namely - why are we celebrating Guy Fawkes?

Why on earth is an independent, largely secular, country at the bottom of the Pacific in the 21st century commemorating the failure, capture, ghastly torture and execution of a Catholic activist in Britain more than four hundred years ago - it’s mental.

There is much less emphasis than there was only a generation ago on burning the traitor a top a bonfire. Now we mainly just have fireworks, which is a very odd way of celebrating the non explosion of parliament when you think about it. Surely there are things more relevant to Aotearoa than that?

Of course we all know there is, the 5th of November also being the date of the invasion at Parihaka.

“On 5 November, about 1600 volunteers and Constabulary Field Force troops marched on Parihaka. Several thousand Māori sat quietly on the marae as singing children greeted the force led by Native Minister John Bryce.”

“About 1600 troops invaded the western Taranaki settlement of Parihaka, which had come to symbolise peaceful resistance to the confiscation of Māori land.”

You can read more about it here, and there is some information about events in the video at the end of this post.

Of course no one actually cares about Guy Fawkes, they’re not saying don’t take my burning of an effigy of this guy away (sorry), they are saying don’t take away the fireworks. I like setting those off with my family and mates.

It’s probably a given that we’ll get rid of Guy Fawkes and remember Parihaka in time, but what about the fireworks?

I ran a highly unscientific poll asking - do you think we should:

• A) Ban Fireworks

• B) Ban private sales but keep public displays

• C) Allow private sales but police when/how people use them

• D) Leave it as it is

• E) Leave it as it is but bring back Double Happys.

In terms of the poll on my Facebook page it was dominated heavily by “B” with some “A” responses as well, and a couple of “E”s. Here are some of the comments:

What does it take to end this annual madness which puts the fire brigade and medics on edge, and traumatises our pets!

Personally I love fireworks but the public harm issue far outweighs my own terribly childish love of the things. Also Double Happys were the best...

From Diwali till about February they destroy sleep in my 'hood. Starting about 11.00pm, every night, and frightening animals and old ladies. Seriously, I have had enough.

E! nothing beats blowing the neighbours trashcan off their deck.

Ban private sales.....have fantastic Matariki public displays.

Ban them — fires, terrified animals, accidents... I have two very relaxed dogs but even they are on edge. And I hate skyrockets landing on my roof.

I asked my wife “what do you think we should do about fireworks?”, she replied “nothing”, it took me a minute to realise she was talking specifically about our household not the country in general. Well yeah that goes without saying, we haven’t done anything for years - thanks Mrs Grinch.

I also ran the poll on my community page with similar results. We’ve been living in Te Atatu Peninsula since 2008, it’s a pretty mixed area in terms of wealth and race and political support. We’ve certainly seen some gentrification in that time but there is still plenty of old school Tat North behaviour about, particularly when the fireworks go on sale.

Although it has become more upmarket there are also a lot of lefties moving into the area. We became an overflow for arty types, lots of musos and TV folks once they were priced out of Grey Lynn and Ponsonby, then out of Pt Chev. We joke Massey will be next. Massey will not be next.

There was also a poll on Stuff which at the time of writing was similarly in favour of banning public sales. 

It is starting to seem like a no-brainer in terms of the mood of the public and yet no political party will touch it - who wants to be the party that cancelled fireworks?

People talk about the fun police, but that is how laws work - if everyone was acting responsibly there wouldn’t be a discussion, and yes it does mean some people are spoiling it for others.

The actual police don’t have time realistically to enforce the existing laws around fireworks and it would be impractical to do is in many situations so that leaves relying on people to do the right thing. Sadly that is less popular than it once was so it only leaves the options of restricting sales of just putting up with it.

As put by reader Jane “Yes, its time is over. Once a fun community event but now it's anti-social”.

I am loathe to see those who enjoy it, who set them off responsibly with their friends and family not unduly impacting anyone and allowing pet owners to plan for a particular time to protect their animals, lose something that brings so much joy.

But too many people now can’t seem to behave respectfully of others and communities don’t want weeks of disruption, pets being scared, and the risk of fires, so I think an end to private sales is where we’re heading.

I asked Gerard (G) from my last post his views:

“I am kind of like most kiwis - I had a fabulous childhood with fireworks and nobody lost an eye in my circle  - these days - I don’t really participate and it's mostly harmless - but I guess it does frighten animals, and set off a few fires ...so it's like less of a thing now.”

I imagine many of those opposed to change are people with happy childhood memories of Guy Fawkes who would like for the next generation to have the same enjoyment, even if sometimes they don’t seem that interested.

“Remember, Remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot”

So two different issues - do we as a society want people setting off fireworks, whenever it might be - the 5th of November, New Year’s Eve, Matariki, whenever?

And the second commemorating an event that has so little to do with Aotearoa New Zealand, rather than acknowledging our own history - to reflect on the injustice of what occurred at Parihaka and admire the peaceful resistance.

My view is we should forget Guy Fawkes but remember our own history on the 5th of November, and sadly it’s time to lose the fireworks too. That doesn’t bring me any Grinch joy, but it is coming.

Happy Parihaka Day - I hope those still setting off fireworks this year enjoy it safely.

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Some good photos and history to check out in this clip, and of course a good song.