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Firecrackers and rockets quite recently seemed like a curiosity, but now they fly up over our windows almost every week: we celebrate weddings, name days, anniversaries, New Years … Against the backdrop of these “pyrotechnics festivals”, official fireworks have noticeably faded. Why do we love this holiday gunfire so much?
“By playing like children, we discharge our emotions”
Stanislav Raevsky, Jungian analyst.
Fireworks – like the holiday itself – bring us back to play and toys. This is the apotheosis of childishness, to which modern society aspires. Fireworks embody the illusory nature of the world: something flared up and disappeared, without meaning, without material benefit. This is a game, hooliganism, that is, pure childhood. On the other hand, fireworks are an explosion: an explosion of emotions, feelings, experiences. This is how we satisfy our desire to be spontaneous, to be here and now, to enjoy the current moment. In addition, fireworks direct aggression, which is now very much, in a peaceful direction. Better to shoot up than at each other. Finally, one more side is the connection between fireworks and the mysticism of light. By illuminating (albeit briefly) the night space, we recreate the hope for life after death, because light is the basis of life.
“We want to experience the unprecedented”
Alexey Levinson, sociologist.
Until the 90s of the last century, salutes were the exclusive prerogative of the state – an imperial, majestic gesture. Ordinary citizens knew only sparklers and firecrackers, and only quite recently pyrotechnics finally became available to everyone without exception. And we got the opportunity to do what used to be the exclusive privilege of the state – to celebrate our private holidays publicly and on a grand scale. Launching fireworks, everyone can imagine for a second: “The state is me!”
“Bright, redundant – this is the feeling of a holiday”
Evgenia Belyakova,
art therapist.
An explosion of firecrackers, in which there is no practical sense, is the decoration of the holiday, like a cake is the decoration of the festive table. In essence, what is the use of cake? Too sweet, too much cream… We need this redundancy to feel the holiday. Fireworks are bright, sweet and useless. Although there is still a benefit, because if we have forgotten how to truly rejoice, then it is probably worth arranging such an “artificial” explosion and splash from the outside in order to transfer it inside ourselves.”