EVERY festive celebration should be a time for joy, gratitude, generosity and goodwill. Yet, across Malaysia, celebrations are often accompanied by firecrackers and fireworks.
For a few moments, the skies light up and the streets ring with explosions. But have we stopped to think about the environmental, financial and human costs behind this brief spectacle?
Fireworks originated in China, where early firecrackers emerged following the discovery of gunpowder around the ninth century, during the Tang dynasty.
At first, people threw bamboo stalks into fires to produce loud bangs, believed to scare away evil spirits.
