The Guy Fawkes fizzle
Guy Fawkes has been marked with fireworks and bonfires for hundreds of years. But have we grown out of an annual celebration that needs gunpowder to go off? Catherine Groenestein reports.
Fireworks night is always eagerly awaited by Darnelle Buckland and her daughter Delphy, 7, but this year they will be waiting in vain.
They’ve missed out because the South Taranaki District Council’s annual display, the last dedicated big public Guy Fawkes fireworks event held in Taranaki, has been cancelled after complaints about the noise frightening calves at a farm near the town.
Delphy has been going to the annual display at Ha¯wera Showgrounds, along with 3500 other people, since she was a baby, Buckland says.
‘‘It keeps everyone safe, it’s affordable, it was an event for Ha¯wera, a good night for families, and the kids were happy.’’
Although she had no plans to buy her own fireworks, she predicted the cancelled show would mean more backyard fireworks being let off. A backfiring, so to speak, of the intended outcome of axing the show in the first place.
This will bring its own problems.
Every year, animal welfare groups, pet owners and emergency services brace themselves for the inevitable toll of injuries to people, pets and property when fireworks go on sale from November 2 to 5.
One solution favoured by many, including the SPCA, is to ban public sales of fireworks in favour of public events. This is not as radical as it once may have been. Most states in Australia ban the sale of fireworks to the public and restrictions around the sale of them here only ever get more restrictive.
But at the same time the cost, paperwork involved and animal welfare issues mean the number of public events to satisfy Kiwi’s obvious hunger for fireworks, is actually dwindling around the country.
The reasons for South Taranaki District Council cancelling its own event were typical of councils and other event organisers around the country.
The STDC was in the position of having to apply for a resource consent because its most popular annual community event breached its own noise level rules.
After tallying up the costs of a hearing, it decided to cancel, acting chief executive Fiona Greenhill said.
‘‘While we appreciate the concern over animal welfare we believed it could be mitigated with plenty of public notice and the main reason for the withdrawal came down to cost,’’ she said.
‘‘We were looking at having to spend more than $60,000 to get to a hearing, the outcome of which would be uncertain.’’
District Mayor Ross Dunlop said he felt very frustrated about the event being cancelled and is hopeful the event can be resurrected.
‘‘Perhaps using lasers or some other new technology. There’s actually a lot of farmers who are very supportive of it,’’ he says.
The debate over the future of Guy Fawkes and the fireworks that go with it is a part of a larger social conversation about New Zealand’s identity, says Dr Trudie Cain, who lectures in sociology at Massey University in Auckland.
‘‘The origins of bonfire night are a long way from us in New Zealand. We’ve been talking about our allegiance to the UK, and the Monarchy, even becoming a republic, it calls into question this celebration’s relevance to New Zealand and New Zealanders.’’
New Zealand is also a very different country to the one that initially incorporated Guy Fawkes into their calendar, she says.
From the last census, 25 per cent of New Zealanders were born in another country.
‘‘Back in our history, the majority of these people came from the UK, so this annual day had some relevance to them, but increasingly they’re coming from Asia and India, and that influences the kind of celebrations we have, such as Diwali and the Chinese Lantern Festival, these may become more relevant to celebrate here.’’
Halloween was another foreign festival that was growing in popularity in New Zealand.
All of these festivals have community spirit in common, and none are causing issues for animals, she says.
Alongside the debate, New Zealand’s views about animal welfare are also changing.
‘‘The conversation is happening here in Auckland but the animals are different, we’re looking at dogs and cats, rather than cows, but it’s the same debate, it reflects the changing social values of New Zealanders.’’
In New Plymouth, with a venue further from farms, noise wasn’t the issue, but paying for a public Guys Fawkes show was.
While there was controversy when the district council event was cancelled in 2014, its absence now goes unnoticed.
New Plymouth businessman Allen Juffermans, who organised a public fireworks display in New Plymouth in 2014 when council pulled out, does not think its something people would accept councils paying for anyway.
‘‘It would fall back on the ratepayers, back onto that family pocket, they probably send $20,000 or $30,000 into the air in 15 minutes. I’d like to see it funded by those that are willing and able to do it.
‘‘Maybe this is the time to get a Givealittle page up, plan for a display next year,’’ he says.
And anyway Juffermans is one of a growing number becoming uncomfortable with what’s increasingly seen as an irrelevant celebration from a former colonial power’s past.
In recent years, calls have gone out to replace Guy Fawkes celebrations with a national day of peace, centred around remembrance of the British invasion of Parihaka on November 5, 1881.
Juffermans is open to the idea of renaming the celebration, keeping the fireworks but dropping Guy Fawkes and instead celebrating Parihaka Day.
‘‘I think it’s a great idea, with the significance of Parihaka to Taranaki. But it’s not up to me. I’d do it with the support of the Parihaka hapu¯.’’
Parihaka spokeswoman Maata Wharehoka says Parihaka Day events have been held around the country for about 10 years.
She refers to them as commemorations not celebrations.
‘‘We could embrace the peaceful message of Parihaka rather than celebrate Guy Fawkes which has nothing to do with us in New Zealand,’’ she says.
‘‘Why are we celebrating something that is so English? It’s a good thing to look at making our own celebration days in New Zealand.’’
‘‘From a safety perspective I think that organised community events are far more preferable than lots of individual backyard displays.’’
Fiona Greenhill
‘‘Back in our history, the majority of these people came from the UK, so this annual day had some relevance to them, but increasingly they’re coming from Asia and India.’’
Dr Trudie Cain Massey University.
‘‘It would fall back on the ratepayers, back onto that family pocket, they probably send $20,000 or $30,000 into the air in 15 minutes.’’
Allen Juffermans