Hi! I'm Lugh and since Quidditch is on hiatus, I thought I'd stop by the SOUP offices to see what else was going on. When I realized that the topic this month was crazes, I jumped right in so I could talk about my favorite one. Well, to be fair, most witches, wizards, and wix don't think of it as a fad or a craze; it's just something that is part of occasional celebrations unless you're my heroes over at Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes. And that's fireworks.
I mean, what's not to love about Catherine wheels and pyrotechnical dragons, right? They make one happy just watching them cavort about in the sky, chasing each other and the occasional unsuspecting post owl. My little sister prefers the rockets; she's star-crazy and she loves to see them trailing the rockets like comet-dust. But as much as I love the cheery colors of a good firework display and the flashy bangs of the rockets, I wouldn't have ever called it a craze. Not here, anyway. But do you want to know where it is one?
The United States of America.
See, I have this cousin who lives somewhere called Taxes, which is a pretty hilarious name for a place that didn't want any if I remember my Muggle history right. Which I may not. I never did pay a whole lot of attention to history, Muggle or magical. But shhh. Professor Binns doesn't need to know that. Anyway, Angie told me that the big thing over there is to load up every summer with firecrackers - which I understand are kind of like ours but with less flash, just little bangs and pops - and set them off on random nights. But that's not all! They have actual Muggle fireworks displays at the oddest times and places like after baseball games, at the end of musical concerts, on a random date in July, and another one in September. If that's not a craze, then I don't know what is!
I just feel sorry for them that they don't know the gloriousness that is Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bangs. Angie told me theirs just go straight up in the air and fade almost immediately. Maybe that's why they set off so many sets? They must be trying hard to get them right! Even their sparklers are stationary - and what fun is that? I did send Angie a few sparklers from WWW - but I forgot to tell her that they wrote naughty words. Oops?