Fireworks
The New Year and New Year’s Eve in Japan is a very serious and quiet time. It is the time for family gatherings. It is the time to meditate and look back over the events of the passing year, and renew your good will for the coming year. We will listen solemnly to the Jyoya-no-Kane, the New-Year’s-Bell from temples, with our ears and hearts. There shall be no noisy, colorful fireworks at all!
A well known Japanese author, DAZAI Osamu, even described fireworks in winter as fatuous. In Japan, fireworks belong to the summer time.
But here in Iceland, so many fireworks, in every size and shape, are shot one after another by ordinary citizens. It is an amazing view. I feel a strong desire in people to have beautiful lights in the sky, to overcome the long and dark nights.
Apart from that, my Icelandic staff in the Embassy pointed out, that fireworks in the bright nights in Icelandic summer are fatuous indeed.
I totally agree.
