Living in the City

Filipino New Year's eve shall always be celebrated with firecrackers. Adapted from the Chinese, Pinoys believe that the previous year's bad luck should be driven out of one's house and out of one's life with firecrackers and pyrotechnics. I was always aware that firecrackers originally came from China. I didn't know that: "Fireworks originated in China some 2,000 years ago. The most prevalent legend has it that fireworks were discovered or invented by accident by a Chinese cook working in a field kitchen who happened to mix charcoal, sulphur and saltpeter (all commonly found in the kitchen in those days). The mixture burned and when compressed in an enclosure (a bamboo tube), the mixture exploded. Some sources say that the discovery of fireworks occurred about 2,000 years ago, and other sources place the discovery sometime during the 9th century during the Song dynasty (960-1279), although this could be confusion between the discovery of gunpowder by the cook a...