Fireworks on the Fourth

While socializing on a friend’s balcony in Crystal City this past Tuesday, my wife and I spotted distant fireworks to the east.  Judging from the direction and distance, I’m guessing they were for a Bay Sox game, perhaps their first home game since the 4^th.  My wife’s reaction, seemingly out of the blue, was hysterical.  In an almost Dennis Miller-esque rant, she argued that fireworks should be solely reserved for their original intent ... celebrating our Independence Day!  I mentioned that they most likely pre-dated 1776, and given the fact that almost all are now made in China, they most certainly are of an other than American origin.  She was having none of it though.  So cute.

Turns out fireworks did originate in China, dating back to the 12^th century (some sources claim the 7^th or 9^th centuries), shortly after the invention of gunpowder, also in China.  The Chinese first used them to scare off evil spirits, then later to mark the Chinese New Year and other events.  The first reported use of fireworks in America on the Fourth of July dates back to 1777, although they had been used in the colonies for a long time prior at weddings and other special occasions.  No doubt though, Independence Day would be the number one response in the Family Feud topic “Fireworks are used to celebrate this occasion”.

We watched this year’s Fourth of July fireworks, as we did a couple of summers ago, from a boat, anchored in the Tred Avon off of Oxford.  It didn’t escape my wife’s attention, however, that this year’s show was on the third of July.  The Oxford, Easton, and Cambridge shows rotate each year in order to allow each town to hold the show on the Fourth. 

Fireworks alone don’t do much for me.  Add Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture or watch them by boat though, and I’m all about it.  There’s a communal feel when watching a Fourth of July show from a boat. And no matter how you arrive, whether it is by Hinckley or Jon boat, you know you share with your fellow boaters a love of both water and our country ... even if it is the third.