I’m not a great fan of fireworks but this year we started to hear bangs and squeals just before midnight and opened the bedroom window to an amazing display from as far as we could see in all directions. For the best part of thirty minutes we watched sparkles and colours and heard explosions and sirens. Later we explored the internet to compare the firework displays all over the world that welcomed in 2024.
I’d always known why fireworks are used to commemorate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot on 5th November but I didn’t realise they were used originally about 2000 years ago in China to scare away evil spirits. As the legend goes, a monster called Nian would come out to eat villagers and destroy their homes on each New Year’s Eve. The villagers discovered that if they produced explosive sounds by burning dry bamboo, the monster was scared off. Firecrackers were also used in this way and eventually a combination of these and bamboo shoots stuffed with gunpowder developed into early fireworks.
Now various colours are produced by a combination of incandescence, light produced by heat, and luminescence, light produced using energy from other sources and various metal salts produce a variety of colours. Temperature is controlled to manipulate the glow of components such as charcoal to be the desired colour at the right time. Fireworks are made up of small explosive charges called ‘stars’ packed into a shell. Pyrotechnicians use different types of shells to create different shapes, so a ‘peony’ shape bursts into a spherical display whereas a ‘willow’ shell creates a long trailing effect.
The fireworks made me think. Just like a firework – we’re all different because of our make up and we all display different effects. Just one firework alone makes a pathetic display but if we all work together, in synchrony and harmony, something beautiful happens. The heat of suffering makes us brighter. God lights our fuse from His Son, The Light of the World, and His Spirit controls our journey and glow. We know that the force of Christians, especially Christians at prayer, scares away evil.
This new year, be a firework for Jesus, lighting up the darkness and sounding out His praise. Glow well.