Explosive Birthday Favors

Hello all and I wish you and your families a happy Independence Day! Since this is coming out a day before America’s big day, I thought it would be fun to do a post about fireworks. More specifically, I wanted to dive into why the United States choose to shoot fireworks on the Fourth of July and why it is a big deal. Granted, this is not the only holiday where the United States shoots fireworks off publicly or more so privately, but I would argue that it is when most fireworks are used. With that being said, here we go.

Growing up as a budding historian, I always thought that fireworks were a terrible way to celebrate America’s birthday. I thought this because I thought it took away from the spirit of everything our nation has accomplished. Boy, I sure was wrong and I wish time travel existed so I could grab a Crystal Pepsi and explain to youngin’ Helms why he was wrong. According to the American Pyrotechnics Safety and Education Foundation, the legend has John Smith using the first fireworks in America. He probably used them to woo Pocahontas into marrying John Rolfe. All jokes aside, Smith and his fellow colonies in 1608 celebrated the founding of Jamestown, Virginia with fireworks. This was the first major permanent settlement by the British in the New World. Fireworks were even used at the first Fourth of July celebration in 1776. Honestly, fireworks are a more appealing visual than an old piece of paper that Nick Cage once took.

Fireworks have been around as early as the 600s in China. So, with time and people doing their thing, it makes sense that someone had the idea to blow up a firework in celebration. A news article from Fox stated that John Adams, while president, wanted the lights to shine in memory of what was independence from Britain. Going into this post, I had no idea that fireworks often coincided with celebrations for hundreds of years. I had thought that was similar to our national anthem in that we did fireworks because the famous poem references bombs bursting in the air which was artillery fire on Fort McHenry. Clearly, I was wrong, and I am glad. It makes me think that John Adams and even John Smith got giddy as a child to use fireworks.

I hope this short post was interesting to you, let me know what your favorite firework memory is and I hope y’all enjoy your Fourth of July!