HALLOWELL, Maine — Traditional Japanese wadaiko drums kept the beat Saturday, Jan. 6, as the city of Hallowell burned some Christmas trees in a celebratory bonfire.
Organizers said this tradition is equal parts necessity and circumstance. For one, the fire department said it prefers for trees to be out of homes this time of year.
“After Christmas time, usually people stop watering trees, and it’s a fire hazard,” said Logan Bennett, who made the rank of lieutenant five years after joining the department at 16 years old.
Safety aside, planners of the event said they hoped it would energize a dull time of year.
As Karen Knox, who heads Vision Hallowell, put it, the burn helps to “keep the juju going in Hallowell.” The symbolism of literally destroying the remnants of the holidays, as the nearby Kennebec River freezes for a cold winter, wasn't lost on some attending.
“It’s a great time for everyone to come out,” Johnathan French said, adding that the festivities brighten up the January slump.
As neighbors donated the trees, paying $10 to support the local firefighters association, the dry quaintness of this small-town New England tree-burning vanished, as the rhythm picked up.
As if choreographed perfectly, right as the firefighters lit up the pile of trees, a group of well-trained teenagers emerged and began to bang their wadaiko or taiko drums. Those are a traditional Japanese instrument, usually brought out on festive occasions.
Their movements, backlit by a raging inferno, transfixed the crowd. The music was both intense and upbeat, which Naoto Kobayashi, who leads the troupe, said is typical of the genre.
“We play for everybody’s happy life and [a] healthy life and long life," Kobayashi said.
That message was made ever more clear by the drummers' co-performers, the Hallowell firefighters, who happily tended to the fire, trading jokes and keeping the crowd at a safe distance from the flames.
When the roaring burn turned to embers, the drummers finished their set, and the crowd dispersed, having given what one must imagine is among the more eccentric farewells to the holiday season in Maine.