Saturday, 1 September 2007

Fiery Flowers In The Sky

In honour of the 50th Merdeka, the Ministry of Tourism of Malaysia hosted the biggest celebration in the country, the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC) which was held for 2 weeks at Putrajaya International Convention Center. Five big countries partook in the competition - Canada, Japan, Italy, Australia and last but least, Malaysia.
Yes, on the 31st August 2007, my friends and I high-spiritedly went to Putrajaya to check out the MIFC. Yes, we were amongst the crowd of approximately 100 thousand people who came over to PICC to see Team Japan showing off their masterpiece that night. And yes, we were also among those people who had lined up for almost 2 hours to get into one of the dirty, filthy, shit-filled portable toilets. Gross! I swore to God, I would never ever use any portable toilet again in my life!
The incandescent displays started at 12 midnight due to Merdeka countdown and lasted for like 25 minutes. Well, I was expecting for some music during the Team Japan’s fireworks show, but so unlike Team Italy, the only music we could hear was the explosive sounds of the massive firecrackers. However, the Japan’s non-musical firework show, at the end, spectacular!



I believe there are six common colours in fireworks - white, yellow, red, green, blue and amber - which are made using specific checmical compounds. Deep blue and purple are the most difficult colours to create as they have very narrow bands on the colour spectrum. Blue and green are actually considered the most dangerous colours to produce, speaking of which, one of the greatest challenges to the pyrotechnicians.

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