10.1 crash

October first, twenty twelve.

The national day fireworks was going to be the fantastic finale to a fabulously fun-filled four-day weekend. But the night ended in fatal chaos and tragedy.

Workers of Hong Kong Electric Co. who were "lucky" enough to win tickets to a boat trip in a "lucky draw" were invited to see the National Day Fireworks up close with their families, unbeknown to them that they were about to be part of HK maritime history's worse accident in over 40 years.

The Lamma ferry collision caused 38 fatalities, including children, numerous injuries, and a lasting scar on the mention of the date Oct 1st on all of HK people's hearts.

Will they still continue with the fireworks next year? How do we go on "celebrating" Oct 1st, when the first thing we remember about the date is all those innocent lives lost?

And, to be quite honest, have we HKers ever actually thought of Oct 1st as anything more than just another public holiday? Most other public holidays have fairly legitimate reasons or purposes or origins that perhaps we might feel is more relevant for us to celebrate - e.g. Chinese New Year - it's the most important season of Chinese culture and well you cannot not celebrate the new year; July 1st handover - this is a fundamental date in Hong Kong's modern history; Christmas - we've always celebrated this and gives us more legit excuse to go shopping (as if we need one)...but Oct 1st National Day? Which Nation? Hong Kong wasn't part of China when the People's Republic of China was officially founded on 1st Oct 1949. We were actually a part of the United Kingdom by then. We didn't need to fight anyone off our territory on the night of 30 Sep 1949. We didn't take part in overthrowing any puppet emperor or figurehead political leader or march through the wilderness to get to where we are. The Brits kept us minding our own business while the rest of the country was in upheaval.

Perhaps rather than celebrating the birth of our "motherland" who abandoned us and then took us back 15 years ago, HK people are "celebrating" the business that this long weekend brings since the rest of China gets a whole week off and bus-/boat-loads of Chinese tourists flood into the city with their suitcases full of cash and luxury-brands-shopping-list.