Bonfire night!

[purfectpuss]

AIBU to think that complaining about the noise is ridiculous. My facebook feed is full of people moaning:

"It's too loud, it's affecting my elderly mum and her health condition"
"I can't hear the telly..."
"the cat's hiding"
"how can people afford fireworks- we're in a cost of living crisis?"

Really...?

The best thing about this coming Monday is that the pointless moaning about Halloween and Bonfire Night stops. Even if it was limited to the organised public displays the complainers say they want, people would still be moaning about those. I guess tomorrow they switch to grousing about Christmas though.....

It didn’t used to be loads of people having their own huge fireworks display, you went to a public display or you had a bonfire, couple of tiny rockets a Catherine wheel and some sparklers.

When I was a kid, there would be a lot more free public displays. I used to go to 3 across 2 different weekends. Now my closest is Battersea. There used to be more neighbourly displays when I was a kid too.

There's your 3 hours of constant bangs.

3 hours of constant bangs? who on earth can afford that?

It's this for me. It's been going on every night since Diwali here and every night I've been just waiting for the baby to wake up as the fireworks get closer and closer. It'd be okay if it were just one night but it's been weeks of it and I'm tired of being on edge the whole time :(

Do you live somewhere very quiet normally? I'm in Wandsworth not far from Tooting & obviously Diwali is big for some in the local community but we genuinely don't really hear them. The only noise pollution that annoys me is police helicopters.

I'm all for advertised organised displays where you can plan any animal management, silent fireworks even better.
The dogs I have now aren't bothered, but we used to have an ex army dog who served with the bomb disposal unit, he was absolutely terrified. Which sort of knocks the "you can train animals to get used to loud bangs" argument.
My horses on the other hand have to be sedated. If I know when the displays are I would know when to do that, not continually dose them for days at a time.
I've had a rocket fired at my horse when I've been riding in broad daylight, my friends rabbit died from shock last night, in the news a dog got scared by a random firework and jumped into the sea. The owner tried to save him and drowned, the dog never found.
At school, a long time ago, a stupid prick lit a firework and shoved it down a girl's jumper. She was severely injured.

I hate fireworks (I was hit by one as a child) but YANBU.
I used to live in a country where private displays were illegal (literally 3 days a year when there were official displays and they were epic, National Day, Deepavali, NYE) and whilst I think that’s extreme I would support greater regulation eg not every day for 2 weeks either side of Guy Fawkes.

I couldn’t agree more. My DH is a veteran. He loves fireworks.

So anyone who partakes in a firework display and also donates to the Royal British Legion is a hypocrite?

Same here. Also veterans and also enjoy 5th of Nov fireworks 😜

I’ve noticed fewer and fewer fireworks over the past few years. Maybe too expensive now, or just that I have moved out of London? Where I live now only one family appeared to be marking Diwali with fireworks and only one or two last night. Fine by me, I think the public displays are much more appealing and they are limited in duration.

YANBU

some people are just miserable though, I always read those posts and just pity them

I'm not miserable. I have a phobia of fire and fireworks being let off close to my home terrify me, especially if accompanied by enormous bangs. I had to work very hard on Friday evening and last night using various CBT techniques to stop having a full blown panic attack.

But those who every year on MN ridicule people who hate fireworks, and call them miserable fun sponges, and laugh at any worries about scared animals, don't give a shit about people like me. I have no objections to safe organised fireworks displays, but absolutely hate people letting them off in tiny gardens surrounded by densely packed housing.

Who has made fun of those who don’t like them?

This post is about those who MOAN about them.

Unless you’re one of these sad people who moan on a local FB group because you are scared you’re not what this post is about.

But neither does complaining about the complaining here, nor your comment, nor mine, nor... anything?

Honestly though I wish they would get banned like in Ireland. They are at best useless and at worst dangerous.

Maybe re-read my post. The combined impact of lots of little displays is constant fireworks. It has been here all weekend.

Surely you can understand that that is a combination of different displays?
I live in a big City, and seriously, they started about 4 / 4.30 pm yesterday and peaked around 7, but then started up again after 8, and there were more after 9 and right through until the early hours. A lot longer than 3 hours, and of course they have been going on since the end of October when Diwali was.

As I said before, I like fireworks.
I don't have a baby, I don't have PSTD, I don't have pets so have no skin in the game, but I do have empathy for people who struggle with so many fireworks now being the equivalent of small bombs. There is just no need. Fireworks are beautiful - they don't need the added sound effects.

People with their fireworks should just fuck off
Either organised displays with silent fireworks or nothing

there is just no need to panic wildlife, pets and people

In the late 90s, somebody threw a lit firework at me. I was about 9. Somebody pulled me out the way. If they didn't, it probably would have taken my leg off.

They're legal explosives and it's absolutely ridiculous.

My friend is a physio and says that they have a lot of appointments after new year due to loss of movement in hands due to firework related accidents.

They scare the shit out of elderly people, livestock, wildlife, pets. They can cause seizures in epileptic people. They cause fires and accidents. Yet somehow they're still legal and you can buy them easily. They should be kept to licensed and organised displays only.

About an hour ago, I was listening to a book, all of a sudden there was a mahoosive boom followed by 2/3 not so loud. This was an organised display. I may have forgotten how loud they were due to the 2 year covid break, but I don't think so.
This display is always held in the centre of town, in a large park, so I get a free display every year. Fortunately the loudness only lasted 2 minutes.
This evening I nearly fell off my bed, my cat also looked bothered. I'm glad my mh issues aren't affected by noise.
I dont have a problem with loud fireworks, I have a problem with one's that sound like a bomb has gone off.

Someone at the back of our house has been letting off fireworks tonight. They are still going on now and are bloody loud.
Scaring the shit out of my autistic DD and waking our 2 year old. Not impressed.
What sort of selfish idiot lets fireworks off at 10:45 on a Sunday night?

I love bonfire night, always have, but I don't see the point of bangs. Just turn down the noise and keep it to organised displays.

The moaners save it up over Christmas to deliver on New Years Eve.

I have a shooting range near me. On Sundays for about 2 hours they have clay pigeon. The bangs and the pops are really loud, I would say at least as loud as the fireworks I hear in my house if not louder. There is a forest walk close by which I walk every week at that time. I've seen a ton of different dogs being walked on that path that weren't in the slightest bit concerned (it fact more of them are interested in covering me in mud, but that's another issue). Which tells you that it is not just all dogs that are terrified by fireworks, but a subset of them.

How big this subset is I don't know. But the idea that all dogs are terrified by fireworks is not true, so it could be that people asking for it to be banned are actually quite a small percentage of the total ownership.

Apparently the idiots near me. It was absolutely belting it down over here last night as well

Our next-door-next-door neighbours were letting off horrendous things for over an hour last night. I went into the utility room and it actually shook. It was like the Western Front and very macho.

Please - lay off these stupid things and go to a public display where it all gets done and dusted in a one-off.

Or get fireworks that just hiss make a pretty display and aren't in effect miniature bombs.

I would have them banned to public displays only.

I have hyperacusis. Fireworks (amongst other things) are very traumatic for me. Fortunately I now live where there aren't too many (part of the reason I now live where I do!). Even so, I still wear earplugs and ear defenders over those. Plus keep the cat in! Although he is less bothered by them than I am.