playing with firecrackers



while the adults had their firecracker wars, we, children, had our own fun playing with sticks of firecrackers. it would not have been much fun for us to light of one whole packet of firecrackers. instead, we would play with single stick of firecrackers. there were a number of fun ways playing with firecrackers.

for us, we had the mini version of the red firecrackers. these 2.5cm firecrackers for children were usually green in colour. the circumference and diameter were correspondingly smaller than the normal ones. the sound produced by these short sticks was nowhere as thunderous as the big bangers.

in an act of sheer bravado, we would hold the stick of firecracker at arm's length with our thumb and forefinger. we would either light it ourselves or got someone else to light the fuse for us. the only harm or pain that we would experience would be a slight sting at the tips of the two fingers holding the firecracker.

one way of playing with the unexploded firecrackers that we had picked up was to let them off one at a time. sometimes, we placed the firecracker stick in a standing position on the ground, lighted it and quickly covered it with a tin can. the resulting explosion would throw the tin into the air. or we would step on the tin before it could fly off and got a muted sound.

as children we also played with more dangerous explosives like the double bangers. these are oversized firecrackers which produced two sounds, 'pong' followed by 'pak'. so, we gave it the name 'pong pak'.

although i did not sustain any injury while playing with firecrackers, i knew of some friends and neighbours who suffered injuries to their fingers and hands. once, when i went to watch a firecracker war, i had one lighted packet thrown onto my back but i was none the worse for it.