Playing With Fire Is Fun

Many a time we are advised against playing with fire. It can be dangerous they say. But playing with fire can be fun and exciting especially if it is a campfire. Nowadays, with the easily available fire crackers and fireworks, campfires are getting less and less popular for marking momentous occasions such as new year celebrations.

Campfires, traditional as they may be, can be no less spectacular than those readily sold fire crackers or fireworks. However though, extra caution must be taken when making a campfire due to the obvious danger that may be caused by the sparks that the fire emits. Using the right wood, branches or twigs, the sparks a campfire could emit can be very breathtakingly beautiful. With the advent of digital cameras, those sparks could be immortalised in still frames for future viewings.

And that was exactly what I managed to do when joining folks in a certain kampung (village) celebrating the transition of year 2008 to year 2009 recently. While others are enjoying food and other entertainment, I was busy "isolating" myself to get shots of the sparks emitted by the campfire.

By the way, campfire is unggun api in Malay and in my Salako dialect it is called pumputn. Talking about pumputn, there were lots of recollections of my childhood years when we would assist our parents in making them. This happened a few days after burning seasons on cleared land plots in preparation for padi planting. That was especially so if there were remaining branches and twigs not razed by the main fire. But of course those were done during daylight so there would be not much of any brilliant fireworks then as compared to if they were lit during night time. Because traditionally our parents practiced shifting padi farming, no same plot of land would be cleared and cultivated for the same purpose until at least four or five years after that, or the longer the better.

And back to the campfire thingy, below are the pictures that I managed to capture that particular new year night. Hope readers may appreciate them.