The story of the week has been how everyone having not-enough sleep over the 9th day of Chinese New Year, a.k.a. the Pai-Ti-Kong festival, a.k.a. the Hokkien New Year. Since I am staying Jalan Raja Uda, Butterworth, the situation is just the worst. The excessive array of oblation, the luxurious food offering, extremely elaborate deco over an exaggerated high table, and of course the never-ending firework and firecrackers, the ridiculousness of all of it has made me rethink the purpose of the celebration.
First, the food waste must be a problem because there is simply no way each household could consume this huge amount of food. From what I heard before, there is also a misbelief that the food offerings are not meant to be eaten to worsen the situation. Second, we Malaysians often like to complain about the open air burning from Indonesia, but during this festival alone, the amount open air burning of the offerings plus the firework collectively, has made the air pollution spiked during that few hours. Third, all the plastic and rubbish created, who else gonna clean it up except the city council, a typical NIMBY mindset. And finally and especially, the most annoying problem of all, the excessive noise from all the firework and firecrackers.
Perhaps I could understand firework and firecrackers for any kind of celebration. But firework at hours way pass 12am is just something that baffles me. Sunday night, Monday early morning, I could still hear the exploding sound of firework and firecrackers after 1am. The most annoying part is that the noise is sporadic, this house opens fire, 7mins or so later then another house opens fire. I thought the people are worrying about economic downturn. But from the amount of firework I have seen, it seems like everyone is doing just fine with so much money to burn, literally. It is not a nice way to put it but it is seriously feels like a dick-measuring contest, to see who's bigger, who's longer, who shoots higher and louder. To put it simply, those who have released firework after 1am are just selfish. To say that they assume everyone doesn't have to work the next day is just wrong because I don't think they think of anyone else. It is highly likely that they are the same people who complain about noise of firework during Hari Raya and Deepavali. Don't tell me that firework is not their tradition. If the celebration of the 9th day of CNY is to commemorate the Hokkiens hiding in the sugarcane plantation from a potential massacre, how the hell firework achieve that purpose? To simulate the chaos of the massacre?
When a tradition no longer makes sense, it is time to get rid of it. To be honest firework is only impressive for the first few minutes, after that it is just boring and annoying. All that is left is the prolonged sporadic noise. If firework is a must, why don't we all synchronize and release the firework together at 11am sharp, for example? I could imagine it to be an incredible scene to behold, instead of what we have now. In that case, everyone could also go to bed before 12am.
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