Festival, Flames, and Weather Games: How Fireworks Shaped Our Celebrations and Scientific Curiosity

Hey guys, welcome to the learn Feng Shui podcast where you'll learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view. Taking out the myth and superstition. So if you're interested in learning Feng Shui, Chinese astrology, all things Chinese metaphysics, as well as the superstitions and myths that connect it all, you'll enjoy learning fune with me. Hey guys, welcome to the Learn Feng Shui podcast where ancient traditions meets modern celebration. Ah, I'm Candice Berlanga, a certified Feng Shui practitioner and red ribbon professional with the International Feng Shui Guild.

Today we're going to look at the explosive history of fireworks from their Chinese invention to American symbolism and asking a strange but really interesting question. Can fireworks make it rain? That's something we're explore today. And then Folkler Friday, we're going to look at a roundup of fiery festivals from around the world. Let's get into it.

Midmon here. I'll be gone from July 18th through August 8th, working on some other stuff and taking some personal time. And I just thought I just wanted to do a fun episode today. Nothing too insightful from a fune point of view, but more of just kind of like the origins of the fireworks were of course which were invented by the Chinese. So just an interesting little uh fact there.

And I do believe I've covered this before, but I wanted to go back through and of course add to it from the American pyro.com American pyrochnics association. I didn't know there was one. The history of fireworks. Many historians believe that fireworks were originally developed in the 2n century BC in China. It's believed that the first natural firecrackers were bomb bamboo stalks that were thrown into a fire and would explode with a bang because of the overheating of the hollow air pockets in the bamboo.

Uh the Chinese believe that natural firecrackers would ward off evil spirits sometime during the period of 6 to 900 AD. Legend has it that the Chinese alchemist potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal to produce a black flaky powder or the first gun powder. This powder was ported to a hollowedout bamboo stick and formed the first man-made firework. Fireworks made their way to Europe in the 13th century and by the 15th century they were widely used for religious festivals and public entertainment. The Italians were the first Europeans to manufacture fireworks and European rulers were especially fond of the use of fireworks to enchant their subjects and illuminate their castles on important occasions.

Early US settlers brought the love of fireworks with them to the new world and fireworks were part of the very first Independence Day. I don't know if you guys knew that. Of course, we're just passing Fourth of July here. It's a tradition that uh continues every fourth, as John Adams had hoped, with pomp, parade, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other. American spirit of celebration continued to grow into the late 18th century when politicians use displays to attract crowds to their speeches.

While Fourth of July is still a big day, Americans continue to use fireworks year round to celebrate festivals, special events, and sporting traditions like the Olympics and the Super Bowl. Fireworks entertainment generates dollars as well as smiles. A thunder over Louisville is one of the country's largest firework displays. And it was determined that this celebration can generate more than $56 million for local economy, which is insane. But more than anything else, when you think of fireworks, you think of Fourth of July and the celebration for the country's independence.

Fireworks, of course, have been with Americans since the beginning of the nation, and that is why the American Pyro Technics Association will continue to preserve and promote an American tradition. So, there's a little bit of the fireworks. I hope you had fun on Fourth of July and popped a bunch of fireworks because that's what makes America America, just blowing up and having fun. One thing I wanted to explore and this is maybe a little bit of a tie-in with Feng Shui is the way sound can actually activate the atmosphere or create I suppose an energetic activation. We know that when we do Feng Shui activations within our home will spend time there, right?

Anything that kind of amplifies the energy. But one way to amplify the energy is to place a little speaker in an area. Maybe you put your sound bar for your TV or something in that area for surround sound. Or you could even just place a little Bluetooth speaker and activate the area with sound. Um, one of the things that I kind of came to mind when putting this episode together is that I remember listening to some podcast.

One thing that they noticed was that during the Civil War here in the US is that after a large battle with a lot of cannon fire and a lot of booming and banging from guns that they would notice that it would be rainfall which I thought was pretty interesting. I found this article here when the US government tried to make it rain by exploding dynamite in the skies from smithsonianmag.org. I'm going to put all these links in the show notes. Even if I forget to mention where it was from, the links are in the show notes here. Inspired by weather patterns during the Civil War, the rain makers of 1890s headed to West Texas to test their theory.

And this actually occurred fairly close to me around the skies of Midland, Texas. Also, West Texas, it says here, skies around Midland, Texas lit up and thundered with brilliance and a cacophony of militaryra explosives. But it was far from wartime scene as on August 17th 1891 a group of scientists were setting off explosions in the first governmentf funed rainmaking experiment. So Robert G. Dyrenforth had traveled by train from Washington DC to Texas cattle ranch in Texas with a group of other rain makingaking enthusiasts.

They've arrived armed with dynamite kites and balloons the key ingredients for rain makingaking recipe. Following the tenants of the conclusion theory of weather modification which suggested that clouds could be compelled to produce rain as a result of agitation from loud noise. The rain makers prepared their explosives for detonation. Among this group was Edward Powers, a former Civil War general who made the observation in the 1871 book Warren Weather that rain frequently occurred in the days following Civil War battles. He theorized that loud noise accompanying the event of a battle had agitated the clouds causing them to release rain hold up inside of them.

And his book documented several battles throughout history which subsequent rain events happened. That's kind of what I was talking about earlier. So I need to find this book because I was actually uh looking for this book. I think the podcast that I listened to actually uh that's probably what they were referencing and covering here. If lightning and thunder and rain had been brought upon by the agency of man when bloodshed and slaughter were only intended, then surely this can be done without the latter, he wrote, urging US Congress to fund research on the topics.

He was not the first to have this theory or the idea that loud sounds could disrupt the climate's equilibrium and force rain to fall. In the sec uh second century, Greek essaists observed that rain frequently followed battle and even Napoleon was known to attempt to introduce rain by firing artillery into the air. Two decades after Published his book, rainmaking believer, Senator Charles B. Farwell of Illinois, who read P's book and other studies on the topic, asked the Senate Appropriations Committee to allocate $10,000 for rainmaking efforts. Though the House removed the request, the Senate eventually restored it, eventually settling on $7,000 allocation.

Congress assigned the experiments to the Department of Agricultures forestry division. Perhaps explains Christine C. Harper in Make It Rain, State Control of the Atmosphere in 20th Century America. The bill would have been listed by number among great many other apparations. So, no one would have paid such attention to a small amount requested for uh this rain makingaking.

So basically, it's saying that it was kind of slid into a bill and approved, which we know they do that. Not getting too political, but we know they'd be sliding in other stuff with other stuff, if that makes sense. Especially here in the US, they'll, you know, have something to get approved, but then they'll slide some other stuff in there slightly to help push it through, right? We know that happens. So, however, members of the scientific community and forestry division wanted no part of this appropriation and distant themselves from what they believe to be wacky and unound theory.

But Dyron Forth, a patent lawyer based in Washington DC, had no such compunction and took charge of the experiments. In addition, the team was made up by Powers Dyron for also consisted of Smithsonian Institution meteorologist George E. Curtis and patent office chemist Claude O. Roswell. It's saying like they were knowledgeable.

It wasn't like woo woo, but it was actually pretty scientific, you know. But I think when it comes to things like looking at weather control or making it rain, right, we think that it tends to sound pretty crazy, but I've heard of also cloud seating, which it'll come to in a second. Anyway, born in Chicago, Dyron studied in Germany where he attended the Polytechnic School and earned a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of H Highleberg. He also served as a war correspondent and a patent lawyer. So, clients came to him with applications for rainmaking inventions.

He became really obsessed. His team's first experiment took place on what they call the Sea Ranch near Midland that belonged to Chicago Meat Packing Tycoon Anelis Morris. 12 hours after they set off the initial rounds of explosions, ran began to fall, writes James Fleming. Uh, in fixing the sky, the checkered history of weather and climate control. Even though the collective rainfall at the ranch was minimal, they saw as evidence of success.

They set off another round of explosions. 156 pounds of Rickarok. Just as a norther or precipitation induced cold front was moving into the area. When mist appeared after the explosions, Dyron Forth of course took credit. But kind of makes you wonder.

I don't know. I'm a little bit skeptical. So maybe they had the weather predictions and they just shot that stuff into the sky and they took credit. I don't know. The final experiment at the ranch occurred in August 25th after fiery explosions throughout the day.

Dyron Ford reported rainfall around 3:00 a.m. He says, "I was awakened by violent thunder accompanied by vivid lightning and a heavy rainstorm to the north. That was the direction in which the surface wind had steadily blown during the firing, hence the direction in which the shocks of explosion were chiefly carried." Despite Dyron Forest's effusive comments, no one measured the rain and hours later reported it was nothing but a sprinkle. Despite his insistence, no one measured the rain and observers later reported it as just sprinkles. So, it's one of those things we you know, we really don't know.

I guess the prevailing view even among the officials and others was that it was not credible scientific basis for increasing rain from the clouds by using explosive devices. As George Bomber, meteorologist at the Texas Department of License and Regulation and author of Texas Weather, there's a great deal of skepticism. He says, one of those skeptics was the team's own meteorologist who left the group the day before the experiments returning to Washington. And he wrote here that in view of these facts, it's scarcely necessary for me to state the experiments have not afforded any scientific standing to the theory that rainstorms can be produced by these explosions. That was his view.

But some people including Dyron forth held on to the belief that these experiments might have worked. When the mayor of El Paso, Texas invited the rain makers to test their methods in the dry desert town, Dyrenforth sent his team to conduct experiments there under the leadership of John T. Ellis. This time funded by the city of El Paso. They purchased some explosives, dynamite, and whatnot.

This experiment was a little bit different. It says here that the day before, Ellis inflated a hydrogen balloon and descended the balloon as artillerists fired explosives into the sky. Later that night, rain began to fall south and southeast of the cities. And although they were conducting the experiments in the opposite side of town, the rain makers of course took credit for the showers. So, you know, did they really?

I don't know. The rain makers went on to conduct experiments in Corpus Christie, San Antonio, and San Diego with similar inconclusive results. But it has been noted that meteorologists had predicted rain in all those places on the days the rain makers attempted to shake particip precipitation from the sky. Even if Nyorth and his team were unaware of their predictions, they launched experiments into the southwest traditionally rainy season. So precipitation was more than likely to occur than not, I suppose.

A decade later, serial magnate Charles W. Post conducted his own experiments in Texas Garza and Lynn counties. And every four minutes over the course of several hours, he detonated four pounds of dynamite charges. But in his years of experiments between 1910 and 14, they were inconclusive and then brought to which it brought in into the era of these experiments. Um, although this theory has fallen out of fashion, the science behind rainmaking continues to evolve.

Today, scientists study weather modification, focusing their sights on cloud seeding and the process of inserting silver iodide crystals to make ice droplets on the clouds that clump together and fall from the sky. A still evolving science, cloud seeding, has shown promise, but its efficacy is somewhat unknown. And I think people will kind of see that with what they call a chemtrails or contrails, right? That's one of the conspiracy theories um that they're dumping chemicals into the environment. And they do actually do this.

Um this is still done today. This weather seating, I don't know if I've told you guys before, but I hold have active cosmetology license, right? So I used to do hair and so I'm still part of the Texas Department of License and regulation. I fall underneath that umbrella. I'll get emails and notifications and what not from that.

And they do actually still have a weather modification and cloud seating department that falls under the TDRL. Although they say these experiments have fallen by the wayside. Again, cloud seating is still said to occur here, at least in Texas. We're still doing that. Another thing we kind of talked about before is, you know, we look at different days of the year and the weather during those days to make predictions on certain aspects of the year.

For example, if it rains or if the wind blows from a specific direction on New Year's, that will make a prediction about the upcoming year. But according to some New Year's Day, it rains quite a bit. But is it the fireworks that changes the weather here from weather and radar? The argument that fireworks make it rain the following day stems from the chemical composition of fireworks. Fireworks are largely made up of sulfur and explode in the air and release clas of smoke containing sulfur and dioxin.

These large releases of sulfur and dioxin have been known to affect the weather. A form of geoengineering known as cloud seeding is a process of injecting silver iodine into the clouds to encourage rainfall. This can also be used to aid in some countries and their crops when they're experiencing severe drought conditions. However, cloud seating needs to be done at cloud heights several thousands of meters above the ground. Fireworks displays don't reach those altitudes.

With that being said, the amount of smoke produced by fireworks can certainly cause a misty and foggy conditions, especially when the skies are clear in the winds or light. This is because there is more cloud condensation nuclei present which increases the fog potential. On the flip side, the weather can have an impact on the fireworks display. So, if humidity is really low, for example, the fireworks will appear brighter. And a temperature inversion can also enhance the sound of explosions, which I just thought was a little extra interesting tidbit to add.

We know that cultures around the world use fire and sound to mark change, ward off evil, and celebrate abundance. Just like with Chinese New Year, Fourth of July, from Scotland's Beltain Fire Festival to El Salvador's flaming fireball festival, these fiery traditions show how fire and sound and even communal ritual transcend border and era. So here for folklore Friday, we have 12 fire and firework festivals that were featured in Atlas Obscura's list of 12 fire and firework festivals. So number one is mentioned Beltaine Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland held on April 30th. It's a modern revival of the ancient Celtic tradition that marks the beginning of summer with a vibrant display of fire, music, and dance.

Participants are adorned in elaborate costumes, perform rituals symbolizing the transition from winter to summertime that corresponds closely with that solar term of coming of summer in the Chinese calendar. Napa, El Salvador, called the Fireball Festival. Every August, locals commemorate a 1658 volcanic eruption by engaging in a fiery battle, hurling flaming kerosene soaked balls at each other in a dramatic and hazardous tradition. So that does that seems a little wild to me. I mean, I know here we'll shoot those Roman candles at each other sometimes.

Yeah, be safe with those fireworks, guys. de Ridios and Ridia Cuba. In December, the Cuban town transforms into a battleground of light and sound as two neighborhoods compete by creating elaborate floats and launching massive fireworks displays culminating in a vibrant street festival. Yansu Beehive Firework Festival in Taiwan City, Taiwan. It's celebrated 15 days after the Lunar New Year, which of is generally practiced to pop fireworks and have that lantern festival.

The festival includes launching thousands of bottle rockets into the crowd. Participants believe that being hit by these rockets is actually good luck and it wars off evil spirits. We have the tar barrels of Ottery St. Mary in Ottery St. Mary, England.

And on November 5th, residents carry flaming tar barrels through the streets, a tradition that dates back over 400 years to celebrate Guy Fox night. The event is both exhilarating and perilous. I just thought this this was kind of interesting because I was like, what is Guy Fox night? And according to Wikipedia here, it is an annual commemoration observed on November 4th. Like I just said, its history begins with the events of November 5th, 1605 when Guy Fox, a member of the Gunpowder Pilots, was arrested while guarding explosives, the plotter, had placed beneath the House of Lords.

The Catholic plotters intended to assassinate the Protestant King James and his parliament celebrating that the king had survived. people lit bonfires in England. Months later, the observance commemorates on the 5th of November annually. So, there's that. I didn't know about Guy Fox.

If you're in the UK, you probably have heard about this. I do have quite a bit of UK listeners. So, hey guys. I might be visiting the UK next year, but it'll be on a guided tour if I do. Agüas de Alakante, the bonfires of St.

John in Alakante, Spain. From June 19th to June 24th, Alakantes celebrates the arrival of summer with a massive bonfire, fireworks, and a burning of a large paperier-mâché figures, blending pagan and Christian traditions. And there is a fire festival in Ognon, Italy. I hope I said that correctly. In December, hundreds of torchbears parade through the town and with large wooden torches creating a river of fire to celebrate the Christmas season, the ancient rituals, one of the largest fire festivals in the world.

That sounds amazing. Zozobra in Santa Fe, New Mexico. On the Friday before Labor Day, a giant effigy named Zozobra, representing gloom, is burnt to symbolize the purging of negativity and the welcoming of a more beautiful, like hopeful future. That sounds lovely. One thing that I thought was interesting when looking at this Zozra character is that when you talk about making contact with entities through spiritual means like a Ouija board or a ghost ball when you're trying to communicate with spirit, right?

It is said that there is an entity called Zuzu, sometimes called Pizuzu or Zozo. I kind of wonder if this is sort of the same thing. Although this Zozo bra is supposed to be a giant marionette effigy that's constructed of wood, fire, and cotton. Everything I looked at, it doesn't really seem to be the same thing, but I just thought the connection with like the Zo Zo and Pizuzu and Zuzu, you know, those names. Sometimes it'll be interchangeable, but people will make contact with these entities and it'll start causing havoc in their lives and they're not able to disconnect from them.

I don't know if it's the same thing, but it just reminded me of that. A Pelia in Shetland Islands in Scotland held the last Tuesday of January. It's a Viking inspired festival that features a torch lit procession culminating in the burning of a replica Viking long ship which celebrates the end of the ule season. Sounds amazing. In Catalina, Spain number 10 here at various festivals.

Devils will run through the streets with fireworks attached to pitchforks dancing with drums and showering sparks over spectators in a thrilling display of fireworks and folklore. Falas on Venezuela, Spain. Number 11. From March 15th through the 19th, Venezuela hosts the UNESCO recognized festival where large satirical sculptures are displayed and then set ablaze amongst fireworks celebrating St. Joseph and the arrival of spring.

That seems to be kind of a a theme with some of these where they burn like a big effigy. Kind of reminds me of like the the old burning man, which it didn't talk about here, did it? I don't think they actually have a bonfire at Burning Man anymore. I think it's too dangerous. Okay.

And the rocket war in Greece. I'm not going to attempt that name. On Easter Sunday, two rival parishes engage in a mock war by firing thousands of homing rockets to each other's church bell towers, creating a spectacular and noisy tradition that lights up the night sky. Do y'all think it rains after these festivals take place? I wonder.

All right, guys. Well, I hope you enjoyed this folklore themed episode of, you know, fireworks and how sound may activate the environment. Maybe the chemicals can activate rain. Who knows? Studies are still inconclusive, I suppose.

But these studies are still continuing and ongoing. Anyway, just a reminder, I will be gone until August 8th. Then I'll come back with the energy update. The newsletter will be up around August 1st. I believe that's the first Friday of August.

So, the newsletter will be up and remember to sign up for emails at learnf funray.com little pop-up box. Just sign up right there. You'll be able to get the newsletter straight to your inbox. So, I'll send you that and then it'll be available on the website. And if you have any questions, go to info@learnf Feng Shui.com and shoot me a little email there.

Remember that I will be taking away the free floor plan mapping after August 8th. So that will be disappearing. So you have up until then to get your free floor plan mapping and after that there'll be a small fee associated with that just cuz it's quite demanding for me you guys. I really appreciate anybody that's done the energy mapping. It's just getting a little too demanding.

Anyway, I'll catch you guys August 8th. You'll have an amazing week. I may try to come in with a bonus episode sometime while I'm gone and do a little bit of bonus work with the extra footage I had from Christian Kiryaku where he describes a past life experience while meditating in the pyramid. I'll just say also that I had a little bit of an issue with the audio in that episode and so the audio is not level. I have had the hardest time trying to figure that out.

So, if you have any suggestions, uh, shoot them my way. Message me infollearnf Feng Shui.com. But seriously, um, I'm gonna try to extract that audio and if I could make it work, I'm going to put a little bonus episode out with that. I thought that would be a really cool episode and maybe more of a little folklore themed episode. So, keep an eye out for that and uh, shoot me a message if you need anything.

All right, guys. Catch you then. For a free energy mapping of your floor plan, please check the link in the show notes. To support today's podcast, go to learnf Feng Shui.com, sign up for emails, leave a review, and share with your family and friends.