Celebrating the New Year, Japanese Style

By Sandy Hu

For a Japanese-American kid growing up in Hawaii, there wasn’t a more exciting time than the New Year. Our holiday season was far from over after Christmas. New Year’s brought firecrackers and feasting.

On New Year’s Eve, we kids, dressed in our new Christmas bathrobes, were out on our porch all night, blasting firecrackers, ostensibly to chase away evil spirits. We did it for the sheer thrill, reveling in the bang and flash. The Camel brand produced smaller firecrackers for beginners; the Duck brand was twice the size, making a more substantial explosion. Our arsenal, also included cracker bombs, sparklers, roman candles and bottle rockets.

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