I don't know how it is for your particular areas, but it distresses me to say that that the annual tradition of setting things alight or being potentially maimed – otherwise known as The-Firecrackers-of-Easter – is in full swing in my area.
First of all, I want to know where these young children, who are left to run riot in the streets at all hours, have obtained these fireworks. Their parents must be aware of it as they are letting them off in their own neighbourhood, just doors away from their homes, in the parks. Unfortunately, the two parks are directly next-door and opposite to my home, so these menaces of society are right on MY doorstep letting off bangs and bombs. I do hear the parents shout at them to stop or come home, but it seems as though they are fully aware that their 6-11 year-olds have these fireworks in their possession, and are okay with it, as long as they are 'careful'.
The police force does indeed run an awareness campaign every year, and yet every year gangs of young children continue to have access to fireworks. The very least they are intimidating and noisy, in the worse case, children have lost eyes and fingers, and yet the 'tradition' continues unabated.
Alongside the fireworks is the foraging for bonfire fodder for the fire that burns an effigy of Judas during one the church services. Every year this too gets out of hand with the youth taking/stealing anything they can get their hands on to build their (illegal) bonfires, including items that are not suitable for burning or that can become toxic when burnt. Plastic chairs and toys, synthetic clothing, household rubbish… you name it, it goes on. I have seen groups literally take anything that is not nailed down, and one year, a group of youths was ransacking the salt lake path, pulling down the beautiful (and protected) trees willy-nilly.
As much as I love the run-up to Easter, I hate the month-long assault of firecrackers and pipe bombs, and the nightly bonfires which rage out of control - it terrifies me. On the night itself that marks Christ's resurrection, the island sounds like it is in the midst of full-scale war and the ear-splitting pipe bombs must terrify unsuspecting tourists. I wonder how many of them genuinely panic that the war of 1974 has been reignited? Of course, on that particular night, the fireworks and bombs are let off with the consent of the church… and how the heck are these children making their own pipe bombs, is that not terrifying in its own right?
I am all for traditions and appreciate that we have some unique ones, but let's be serious for a minute. If we are allowing children to purchase and let off fireworks in public without supervision, and if we are allowing children to ransack the streets to build big bonfires in the name of religion, then we are going seriously wrong somewhere. The youths participating are not devout Orthodox who are doing this to demonstrate their religion and their profound feelings on the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, they are doing it because it is a dangerous, thrilling, rebellious, naughty kind of fun.
So, as I do every year, I will cover my ears and pray that no one loses a finger or an eye… for what else can I do?
First appeared in The Cyprus Weekly, 29/03/14
