KVT – Sky Flowers

The fireworks display that marked the beginning of Hanoi’s big birthday was a gorgeous affair, particularly from my vantage point near the Thang Loi hotel.

Before I came to Hanoi I was beginning to find public firework displays particularly underwhelming. Too big, too high up, too much hype. I used to reminisce about firework celebrations in small places with huge Catherine wheels whizzing all around you at street level and flower stars blooming in huge umbrellas right overhead (and desperate property owners standing on roof tops with buckets of water to fizzle out errant sparks and wayward phizogs).

My first Tet eve in Hanoi was spent sitting on the waters edge of Hoan Kiem, feet almost dangling in the turtle infested depths, head craning back as explosions stunned the cold night air, gun powder smoke scourged nostril cavities, and those starry flowers and showers erupted into gigantic, star-filled woks directly and eye poppingly overhead. You felt as if you were at the epicenter.

The walk back home to Ly Nam De Street, worming slowly through the tightly packed crowd around the lake, was almost as breathless as the firework display.

The series of simultaneous firework eruptions over various water bodies on Friday night was such a great idea and I wish it would be copied by my overseas home city which has one of those huge, impersonal spectaculars a couple of times a year and the ooohhs and aahhs of the assembled multitudes are muted by the distant thuds of the gargantuan rockets as they burst and spew stars in technicolored milky ways. I can imagine the celebrations spread over a host of locations where marveling viewers would lie back and see the night sky billowing, seemingly just for them.

On Friday night you felt sorry for those people who decided to view the gorgeousness from high rooftops or sky lounges. You really did need to be hunkering down at water level.

Congratulations Hanoi, you’ve outdone yourself again. I’m still ooohing, aaahhing and imagining the residue of falling stars still in my hair and the subtle pungency of smoke still in my clothes.