I always seem to be working on New Years and Guy Fawkes, and I miss the big fireworks displays. So last night I thought, what the heck, and I went and sat on a hill to watch the show. Some friends had told me the park they were going to, but when I got there it was dark, and there were hundreds of people. I wandered around for ages, peering at shadowy faces. Then, just as I was about to give up, I heard my friend playing his flute, only a couple of metres from me.
It was a strange sense of unity. We could see the whole of Wellington stretching out, from Miramar to Brooklyn, from Northland to the Hutt, there were flashes of coloured light blossoming from backyards. Around us we could hear children squeal at the biggest bangs, and adults sigh as the most beautiful fireworks faded into the night. All over the country, hundreds of thousands of people were out, doing the same thing at the same time.
And in celebration of what? The fact that he failed to blow up parliament? Or that he was game to try?
Guy Fawkes; the only person to enter parliament with honest intentions.
Posted by Fionnaigh at November 6, 2003 10:50 AM