Flashback Fri-yay: The Origin of Fireworks

Hey guys, welcome to Learn Feng Shui, where you'll learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view, taking out the myths and superstition. If you like weekly tips as well as fun folklore tales, you'll enjoy learning Feng Shui with me. One of the biggest traditions here in the US on Fourth of July, which is this weekend coming up, undoubtedly is the Puppet and Fireworks. And I know our city show has actually gone canceled and I think they postponed it to Labor Day, so we'll see if that actually happens with these strange times we're having here. But being my family don't generally go to the city shows, our favorite thing to do is to go buy a bunch of fireworks, the fireworks stands that are in the outer edges of town here, not inside the city limits.

And we go to my mother-in-law who lives outside the city limits and we have a day with her and we pop fireworks at night. And this is one of my family's favorite things to do. So I know if you're like me, you're probably gearing up for the Fourth of July. So I just thought let me bring to you the origins of fireworks since you probably know that there are Chinese inventions. Let's get down to the origins of fireworks.

I had several sources here and my favorite one I think at least my favorite name to the website was called AmericanPyra.com. It states here that many historians believe that fireworks originally were developed in the second century BC in ancient Luoyang, China. It's believed that the first natural firework were bamboo stalks that were when thrown into a fire they would actually explode. So it says here that a bane would happen because it would cause overheating of the hollow air pockets in the bamboo. The Chinese believe that these natural fire crackers would go off evil spirits.

Sometimes during 600 to 900 AD legend has it that a Chinese alchemist mixed potassium nitrate so far and charcoal to produce a black flaky powder or the first gun powder. This powder is poured into hollowed out bamboo sticks and later stuffed in paper tubes forming the first man-made firework. It's pretty common tradition that the Chinese will not fireworks on Chinese New Year so the lunar New Year's. It's really tradition that's supposed to said to scare away evil spirits. The legend that says a monster named Yang will come out to eat villagers and destroy their houses on each New Year's eat.

The villagers discovered that by burning, dry bamboo to produce an explosive sound it would scare the monster away. Since then it's become a Chinese tradition and practiced every year. So how do these fireworks actually make their way to the US and why are they used for a further July celebrations? According to Time Magazine as the ingredients for gun powder spread to the west after the Silk Road opened up for trade and the Mongols made their way to Europe in the 13th century so did fireworks. According to a sandwich, a science historian and author of fireworks, power-technic arts and sciences in European history, they became part of official celebrations from the annual fireworks display in Rome to the 1533 coronation of Ann Bowling as the Queen of England.

So it was no surprise as soon as the four-digit July began to be celebrated as American Independence Day fireworks were also part of the plan. After all, John Adams did say he hoped the anniversary of the independence would be marked for years to come by guns and bonfires and illumination because the first fourth of July display happened to be in the middle of the Revolutionary War. Some historians believe that they were supposed to be a morale booster. The celebration at the time would have also included the firing of cannons and guns, adding the explosive nature to the festivities with the wars and an increasing concern for public safety, obviously, right? Those fire arms were eventually faced out and the celebrations were replaced almost entirely just by fireworks, which were given the official stamp of approval and the hope of drawing citizens of public celebrations instead of having more dangerous private firework show at home, which is my favorite.

It also states here that today, though fireworks are well established as a fourth of July tradition, they've still retained some link to their origins and in 2016, according to a US Census Bureau, $296.2 million worth of fireworks were imported to the US from China, a little bit ironic, right? To support the podcast, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share with your family and friends who you think may be interested, especially if you found this content useful. To learn more about Feng Shui and Chinese metaphysics, follow the link to the website below.