Fireworks are synonymous with Independence Day in the United States, but where did these explosions first come from? While gunpowder can be traced to 9th century China, most people don’t realize that fireworks date back even further, to ancient Chinese folklore.
Today, the United States celebrates Independence Day and fireworks will launch all over the country, but it is just one of many holidays around the world that are marked with colorful explosions in the sky. Yet there is a contradiction between the celebration central to modern fireworks, and the fear and superstition that inspired them.
Fireworks’ past date back to China, around the year 200 B.C. Local folklore spoke of mountain men, similar to Bigfoot, lurking in the nearby hills. They decided the best way to ward off these creatures was to scare them.
Initially, they began heating bamboo shoots. This caused the air pockets in the plant to burst and a loud popping noise followed which supposedly successfully spooked the Bigfoot-esque creatures away.
Fast-forward a few hundred years – during which time the bamboo heating method was being used – and a group of Chinese monks were on a quest to develop an elixir that granted immortality. This might have been common monk practice at the time, but this time the alchemists stumbled onto something that would change the world forever: gunpowder.
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When the powder was stuffed inside a bamboo shoot and lit, fireworks were born. Both in China and around the world, gunpowder soon came to be used for rather more violent means than scaring off spirits. Nonetheless, the celebratory fireworks did catch on as well. By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed, some of the Founding Fathers were already enshrining fireworks as part of the celebration.
In a letter to his wife written on July 3 1776, John Adams wrote: “It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with bonfires and illumination, from this time forward forever more.”
Adams got his wish. That following day, the sky was ablaze and nearly 250 years later, the tradition burns on.
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