Tomorrow once again is Guy Fawkes Day here in New Zealand. It is the time of the year when fireworks are sold and let off by the public, and some bonfires are lit.
But why do we celebrate this day here in New Zealand? As far as I know this day is only celebrated in England, New Zealand, and a couple of other countries. As you probably know Guy Fawkes was one of the conspirators who tried to blow up parliament in England on the 5th of November 1605 - that's 400 years ago! Had he been successful he would have killed the king along with everyone in the House of Lords and the House of Parliament and most probably a lot of innocent people. Essentially Guy Fawkes was a terrorist! Why celebrate an act of terrorism that occurred in England 400 years ago???
But here in New Zealand in the 21st century it is basically just a day for people to let off fireworks. Which brings us to the question "Should firework sales to the general public be banned?" Of course they should! Fireworks are very dangerous. Check out these articles from this year alone:
No fireworks likely for Auckland suburb
Call to ban backyard fireworks displays
A call fireworks only at Public displays
Fire service calls for kids to be supervised in Guy Fawkes lead up
Police take hard line on fireworks
Fireworks could have caused major blaze
Parking meter firework casualty
Stop selling fireworks - Fire Service
Fireworks dispute - man injured
Fireworks house fire - court appearance
Fireworks ban will be enforced
Fireworks may have caused scrubfire
Fireworks assault weapon located
Fireworks blamed for another fire
Government under fire over fireworks
And all of that is from the Newstalk ZB website from just the past week or so!! We need to ban fireworks now and stop celebrating the acts of a terrorist from 400 years ago!
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