Fireworks in La Ceiba aka Is It Over Yet?

I think it’s finally over….

I’m talking about Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and the standard method of celebrating with extreme amounts of fireworks.

Literally, the daily and nightly explosions begin at least two weeks before Dec. 25^th and I was foolish enough to believe that it would all end on Jan. 1^st.

It seemed that everyone had fireworks! Young boys, casually walking past friends and groups of young people, deliberately flicking lit lady finger style ones at their feet just to watch them startle and shriek.

I had an interesting (watch out for that Chinese curse pertaining to living in interesting times!) episode with one young man, probably about 10 years old, one afternoon. I had been hearing the intermittent pops and shrieks along my street and got curious as to who was doing what. So, off I headed to the pulperia and certainly got my question answered!

That young man walked past me, flicked a lady finger back at my feet and proceeded to snicker when I jumped back from it. Well, as they say, that’s when the fight started! I raised my voice, shaking my finger at him and told him in no uncertain terms (and reasonably decent Spanish) that it was unacceptable, dangerous and if he did it to me again I would slap his butt.

He was in almost complete shock, and no longer snickering at me, by the time I was done. It appeared to me that the shock resulted from the fact that someone would dare to chastise him for his behaviour and he just couldn’t believe it!

But back to the general issue of fireworks. Technically, fireworks are banned in La Ceiba but it’s rather apparent that there is zero enforcement of that bylaw. Not only did everyone have them but two days before Christmas there were three different vendors selling them on the sidewalk outside of Paiz, the biggest grocery store in El Centro.  They weren’t just displaying their wares, but making actual sales to adults, including myself.

Yes, yes, I know I’m not supposed to encourage sales, buy illegal goods or give them to my 13 year old friend (with his mother’s permission) and then turn around and complain about it…. Maybe I’ll justify my purchase in the interests of research?

There have been New Year’s Eve’s in the past whereby my street resembled an artillery firing range! Big ones, little ones, long strings of them twisting and careening down the road, massive detonations and even some of them becoming air born.

This past year wasn’t quite as bad but it was still a dangerous proposition walking home from my girlfriend’s and running the gauntlet fearing for my hearing, my vision and my long hair!

Yes, I think it’s finally over for this season since I haven’t heard any explosions for the last two nights, but I wouldn’t want to presume so for fear of jinxing myself! Now, where are my earplugs just in case?

Blessed be, Stephanie