So-called traditions come and go very quickly these days. Yesterday in church, a kind of hot-cross bun was distributed, marking an event in the life of St Hubertus. It is a local tradition in my neck of the woods, but goes back hundreds of years.

We have just had Halloween. This tradition was unheard of a few decades ago here and originated largely in America. St Maarten was another of those regional traditions that is now being picked up by the rest of the country.

Fireworks is one of those traditions that has interesting roots. Some countries have traditional firework days, usually to celebrate their national day. Many have long used New Year’s Eve as the firework night, with televised pictures of firework displays going round the globe as each time zone reaches midnight. It is supposed to be the noise that drives evil spirits away at the start of the New Year.

The UK has a firework night on 5^th November which commemorates the failed attempt to blow up king and parliament over 400 years ago. These days the UK also uses fireworks to see in the New Year in common with so many other lands.

The problem this year is of course corona. People gather in close proximity to each other to watch fireworks in the street, and the emergency services have their hands full dealing with firework accidents and fires. All of this is good enough reason to consider how things should be done differently this year.

The trend in the Netherlands in recent years has been to move from individually bought fireworks to locally organised displays. This helps the safety aspect, but this year does not solve the problem of groups gathering together.

There is only one logical step and that is to ban fireworks altogether this year. There are so many problems attached to such a decision however that it is difficult to see how it could be successfully implemented and policed.

Where I live, within minutes I can cross the border in Belgium and buy fireworks that are banned in the Netherlands. The same is true in the east of the country with the border to Germany. A ban on fireworks would really only work if neighbouring countries did the same.

The sale of fireworks here is restricted to the last few days of December; in Belgium you can buy fireworks the whole year round. Those determined to set off fireworks at the end of the year will find ways of obtaining them, including fireworks which are illegal (and extra dangerous) or which exceed the size and noise levels allowed here in retail sales.

It will not be Mr Average that buys in fireworks if they are banned, generally speaking, but the sort of people that enjoy flouting the rules and, for example, have organised or attended illegal parties during corona restrictions. The kind of person that welcomes any opportunity to stick it to the nasty government. The kind of person that doesn’t hesitate from lobbing fireworks at police and emergency staff attending fires or other incidents. The kind of person that will happily reserve one of their biggest firework ‘bombs’ for public buildings.

I enjoyed fireworks during the innocence of my childhood. Recent studies have shown that birds have a terrible time on firework night. As a former dog owner, I have experienced first-hand the problems of walking my dog in the run-up to firework night, and his anxiety on the night itself with so many explosions taking place close by.

Fireworks are pretty to watch, but come at a cost. I have long favoured a ban on retail sales, with the compensation that public displays would become the norm. So much for my own point of view.

Now we have corona to contend with. The Dutch Prime Minister has frequently used the expression ‘devilish dilemma’, and I think the problem of fireworks this year certainly falls into that category. The biggest problem is not the fuses on the fireworks but people with short fuses! I do not envy the government’s task of solving this impending problem for this year, and I await their expected announcement on it at the end of the week with great anticipation.