CRACKER NIGHT

By Judith Joyce

When I was a child, Cracker night was, after Christmas the second most important celebration of the year. Even thinking about that special night would make my heart race.

   The lead up to cracker night was almost as exciting as the night itself. All us kids would get a shoe box and start filling it with fireworks bought with our pennies we had been saving up all year. Sometimes my elder brother would think of us. He would come home from work with bags full of crackers that were divided amongst us kids. These shoe boxes were hid under our bed, so we could keep them safe. From time to time we would take them out to see what we had and to make sure they were all still there, and what an array of different crackers there were. Among the collection there was penny bungers, tom thumbs, skyrockets, jumping jacks, Catherine wheels, Roman Candles, Mount Vesuvius, sparklers and many more.

   Cracker night also meant the building of a bonfire. It was the tasked of all us to devote our afternoons in the lead up to cracker night to build it. We would hunt every where to find enough wood and junk to make it big enough to last all night. My dad would hammer nails on the fence for the Catherine wheels, and fill bottles with sand for the skyrocket, now all was set for the big night.

  Finally the great night would arrive; we couldn’t wait till it got dark so we could start the fun.  Then it was on, the fire would be lit and go up in a blaze, then the fun would start. Roman candles would bath us in a silvery shiny light, jumping jacks would pursue us around the back yard, tom thumbs would do the same if you lit the whole string. I love to hold the sparklers and race around the yard holding them up using them as a sparkling torch. Dad would light the Catherine wheels and we would watch as they made their perfect circle of dazzling colour.  The penny bungers made the loudest noise especially when my brothers put them under a tin can. They would go off with a tremendous BANG taking the tin can with it.

   One of my older brothers or Dad would have to launch the skyrockets and us little kids were told to stand back in case they went the wrong way which one invariably did. Rockets were stuck into bottles of sand and the wick would be lit then whoosh off they would go into the sky, then bang they would go with a shower of sparkling coloured stars and fill the night with light.

Some of the crackers especially Skyrockets were fizzers for when you lit them they would just go fizz and let out a few sparks pop out of the bottle and land a few feet away and die. What a disappointment for we had spent our hard money on a dud.

   My sister had a disappointing time one year. We were all letting our crackers off early in the night when a jumping jack landed in her shoe box of crackers. The whole lot went off, one after another and in a few seconds they were all gone. I can still remember the look on her face she was so upset. We offered her some of ours but it just wasn’t the same. But it taught us all a good lesson, to never leave our boxes of crackers anywhere near where a spark could get to them.

   All too soon the light show was over for we all had ran out of crackers.

 When the adults went inside we would stay by the fire looking up at the sky to see other people’s skyrockets but by that time the air was so full of smoke that it was getting difficult to see much at all. Reluctantly we all headed for bed to dream of the exciting time we had just had.

   The next morning we were up bright and early too go and hunt under every rock and cranny for the fireworks that had not exploded and we use to find quite a few. We would then have fun letting them off for the second time.  Much to our disappointment cracker night was over and we would have to wait for another year for all the excitement to begin again.

  So I really want to thank the man who must have lived somewhere in China for giving me so much fun and enjoyment for that one special night of each year.