Fireworks...

[fajrdrako]

Pictures of the fireworks last night, taken (by John) from maaseru's balcony.


The red.




The lavender.

Comments

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh. Much better than we got. We can barely see the south end of Downsview Park, past the Yonge-Eglinton Centre. Not worth taking pictures of. Sandie and I used to get down to the lakeshore for the Symphony of Fire but she doesn't walk well enough any more.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Pretty!!!!!

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

fireworks like this, I can see the appeal.
We only get it on newyears eve (and the days running up to it) and so much of it is bang bang type fireworks. It thoroughly scares me. I hate it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, at least you got to see the fireworks a little, right? I don't know why, but it always seems to me to be a necessary ingredient of the day. When I lived in the west end there were places along the river I could go to see Parliament Hill, but it still seemed worth making the trek to either the Hill or the Byward Market just to get a good view of the fireworks.

Of course I was young and energetic back then! Well... sort of.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They really were! Some of the fireworks exploded in a heart-shaped pattern and there were rings within rings, and interlocking rings, but my favourite was the Pictish spiral. Usually in red. A lot of the fireworks this year, most of them, were in red and white.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My goodness - how different! We could hear the fireworks, but it wasn't a loud banging, more of a friendly popping. Don't you have a national day? are fireworks not part of it?

Nobody here does fireworks on New Year's Eve because it's so cold. They do (at least sometimes) have a ceremony on Parliament Hill for New Year's Eve, but I've never been - standing out in the bitter cold isn't my idea of fun. I'm an indoor sort of person in the winter.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Pretties!

I am very Barrayaran when it comes to fireworks. The more the merrier.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Exactly my attitude!

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I remember one year in Ottawa when it poured rain/sleet New Year's Eve while we waited for the fireworks -- I've never been so cold. And then the Millennium celebrations with weird puppets and droning depressing music for hours before we finally got to see some decent Roman candles.

I think after those two fiascos the NCC just gave up on fireworks for New Year's. Victoria Day in May and Canada Day on July 1 are just so much nicer times to watch.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

eh no, we don't have a national day.
We have not a specific date that the country formed nor have we been liberated from colonization (though occupation is in our history). Closest come the 4th and 5th of May. The first is Herdenkingsdag (Remembrance day) for all who have fallen in the Second World War. (Note, the first WW left our country relatively unaffected, so no remembrance for that). There is certainly no fireworks but solemnly laying of wreaths (at many monuments all over the country). The 5th is Bevrijdingsdag (liberationday) with music at several places and festivals. But for neither people get a day of. There was a lobby to make Liberationday into a proper national day, but it was judged to be bad for the economy, another free day. So now most sectors give their employees a day of once every 5 days. (While Duch people have many free days, a day where people have a collective day of are more taxing on the economy).
As for firework, all you ever see here is individually fired firework. On the days running up to new years there are loads of boys who take delight in making passersby jump up. Making the streets littered with red husks. The day of the new years the noise is gradually growing. At twelve o'clock many people try to out-do their neighbors with not just 100 klappers, with 1000 en 100000000 klappers. And the next day the streets are completely red. If the Chinese are right that noisy firework chases way bad spirits that The Netherlands must be thoroughly cleansed that day. (Not sure how long that lasts.) (It is not good for the air quality, you can smell and feel it when you breath for a couple of days).
Not to my liking...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I remember one year in Ottawa when it poured rain/sleet New Year's Eve while we waited for the fireworks -- I've never been so cold.

It sounds awful! Definitely not the way I'd like to see the New Year in. (These days, it involves being warm and indoors at the very least.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

We have not a specific date that the country formed

It comes of being so old! I am envious.

(While Duch people have many free days, a day where people have a collective day of are more taxing on the economy).

Interesting! We have such a tradition of federal/national holidays (otherwise known as 'bank holidays') that differently-timed days off are almost unheard-of. The only exception I can think of is that for people in Quebec, June 24 (St. Jean-Baptiste) is a holiday, but people in the rest of Canada get the first Monday in August instead.

If the Chinese are right that noisy firework chases way bad spirits that The Netherlands must be thoroughly cleansed that day. (Not sure how long that lasts.)

Probably not long!

[filkferengi]

Were there any dragons? [*has Gandalf-flashback moment*]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Though some were a bit dragonish, I didn't actually see a dragon. Too bad!