One thing that people from the mainland never realize is that people in Hawaii celebrate New Years with fireworks.  I’m not talking about lightening a few sparklers or the occasional morning glory I’m talking full on fireworks.  People shoot aerials, set off block busters and all types of crazy stuff.  Most of the normal firecracker/jumping jack type of stuff you can buy from the local drug store without a problem but for the launched into the air type of stuff you have to get them through a “connection.”   Somehow even with all these port inspections people are able to still get lots of these illegal fireworks into the state. 

So the normal tradition is the people gather their fireworks (usually a mix of legal and illegal) and set them off on New Years Eve, with the final act being a string of maybe 10K firecrackers lit to coincide with the time change over.  Ghetto families are the exception to the rule but not in the way you think.  Those families order 3x as many fireworks as every other family on the block then they proceed to start setting off their fireworks for days before and after the actual New Years Eve regardless of the time of day.  Even as I’m writing this some joker down the street just lit something that sounded like an M80, it shock the walls and rattled the windows, oh and by the way its about 11pm at night.

This whole tradition is has always been strange for me.  When I was younger I used to get really excited when New Years Eve rolled around since it allowed my inner pyro to thrive.  As I’ve gotten older and owned a dog, I’ve begun to get anti-fireworks.  For one the dogs go nuts on New Years Eve.  Most owners like myself have to sedate the dog with tranquilizers from the vet since having gun sounds going off every second will cause them to freak out.  Secondly the streets and air look like a war zone, there is gun power everywhere and smoke lingers on the block for hours.   Third is just so fucking annoying when people start shooting whistling bottle rocks at midnight 3 days before New Years just because they can.

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