It is silent nights for Christmas but for Chinese New Year, it is more like noisy nights. I remember the time when firecrackers were not banned in Malaysia. Each night throughout the celebration, it was not just the young ones who would light up firecrackers but during prayers, the adults would set rolls and rolls of it alight creating such a din that you'd be forgiven for thinking that there was a war going on. The use of firecrackers had once caused a fire which killed six people and injured 68 in Singapore and as a result, it was banned in the lion city. Besides Singapore and Malaysia, there are other countries which ban its use to some extent. In Taiwan for example, you can light firecrackers only in rural areas and in Indonesia, you can't light it in area where there is a significant number of non-Chinese population. In New York in what is supposed to be free America, there was a decade-old ban on firecrackers which was only lifted in 2007 when 300,000 firecrackers were set off in Chinatown's Chatham Square. Back to Malaysia, even when firecrackers are banned, one could still get lay hands on them as they are smuggled from Thailand. Nowadays though, it is more fireworks rather than firecrackers but Chinese New Year nights are still noisy nights!
Fireworks during Chinese New Year in Taiping, Perak...
Fireworks during Chinese New Year in Taiping, Perak...
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