By Koji Sugimoto

The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular is one of the most famous 4^th of July events in the United States. In the event, we can listen to a concert by the Boston Pops and other famous singers, and watch fireworks at the Charles River Esplanade. It is not only an important celebration event for American people, but also an introduction of American culture for foreigners. Because it was 10 days after I came to Boston from Japan, the event was very surprising to me, although it is just a typical annual event for Americans.

One of the surprising things was the prohibiting of alcohol. We could not bring any alcohol into the site of the event where we could not buy any alcohol. In Japan, we don't prohibit drinking alcohol when we watch a fireworks display. However I saw nobody complaining about that on the 4^th of July. I did not see any story about it in the next day’s Boston Globe.

Afterward, a kind person taught me that drinking in public spaces in the US is generally illegal under the open container law. Until I knew that, I asked many people why we couldn’t drink any beer or wine there.

One explained to me that it is the tradition of Puritans. It seems strange to me. French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville who visited America in 1831-1832 and an author of Democracy in America wrote about alcohol in America. Tocqueville heard there were many crimes caused by drinking in America then. But, lawmakers couldn’t tax liquor.

"They are afraid of provoking a rebellion. And in any case, any representative who voted for such a law would certainly not be reelected," Tocqueville quoted the explanation of an American informant.

It is true that Puritans don’t like alcohol, but on the other hand, it was 55 years after the declaration of independence. There must have been a strong influence of Puritans much more than now. Why couldn’t they tax liquor?

Another person told me that we shouldn’t drink in front of children. Still, we can drink at Fenway Park where many children enjoy watching Red Sox games. Another said to me that we can drink only in a gated space like Fenway Park. This argument would be persuasive if the site of the Boston Pops was not gated, but it was.

I feel that the cogent explanation is that the organizers of the event intended to prevent problems caused by drunkenness. Actually, there were a half dozen arrests on site, according to the Boston Globe. If the organizer didn't prohibit drinking, there would be more arrests.

But to conclude, we couldn’t drink in a public area because of the law, so nobody complains about prohibiting the drinking of alcohol.

Yet, they may have drank without my knowledge of it. The opening sentence of the article about the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular in the Boston Globe was "Thousands of revelers from around the world …." The word "revelers" means drunken people in England. Indeed, their faces looked very happy.