The Epic Fireworks Blog

Archive for the ‘History of Fireworks’ Category

A nice collection of some very old fireworks from way back in the day. These have been beautifully preserved, note the quality of the colours, simple artwork but still with good impact. Also notice the great names. Firework names have always been important. They give a feeling of what can be expected from a firework, a clue to its effects, Scarlet Fury, or Carnival Spray have very obvious sounding effects. Star Hell is a little less obvious but blatantly appealing to the lads. Sometimes a good name can sell a firework as much as attractive artwork.

Back when bangers were bangers. If you are too young to remember bangers, they were brilliant. One of the highlights for many of us during the bonfire night season was buying a box of bangers and risking life and limb (or at least extremities) while enjoying the excitement of safely placing them upright in soft ground and lighting the rounded dome at arms length and retiring to a safe distance. These are so old that there is no rounded dome to light, just the strange looking protrusion from the top.

Some king size sparklers in the good old fashioned packaging. Note the text on the wrapper: Hold the tip in a flame until it sparkles – good advice. For outdoor use – good advice again. Not ot be held near clothing – excellent, you can tell they really though it through. Take care of children – good advice generally, even better when talking about fireworks.

Very simple colours and designs adorn the plain paper packet. A long way from the foil used today with all its shiny and multi-coloured attractiveness. Yet, there is something comforting about the simple and understated design. It harkens back to better days when perhaps the contents was more important than presentation. To often we are bombarded by bright colourful packaging that is full of promises, only to be disappointed when we tear the seal and see what is inside. For fireworks artwork at least, sometimes less is more.

If you enjoyed this trip down memory lane, explore some other brilliant and nostalgic images from the past with some old photographs from bonfire nights gone by.

Here is a fantastic image of an old fireworks poster. This shows many classic items that some of you may remember from your childhood, such as Mine of Serpents, Snow Storm, Robot Signals (the old name for traffic lights), Jack in the Box, Guy Fawkes Barrel and many many more. You can see them in more detail by clicking the image which will take you to the Epic Fireworks Flickr pages, you can then zoom in and see them in all their glory.

Fireworks packaging has always been important and the bright colours and interesting designs are definately part of what sells a firework. This is still true today, however with the advancement of the internet and the ability to see videos of fireworks before you buy them, the packaging and labelling have become less important and the quality of effect has taken the first place as the most important thing people look for when buying fireworks.

It’s just as well that Epic Fireworks continues to be the UKs leading supplier of high end pyrotechnics. We never compromise on quality and believe that every firework you buy should be the very best possible. Thats why we have hundreds of videos of fireworks on Youtube for you to compare and our website is always kept up to date with our latest barrages and rockets, wheels and fountains, and mines and roman candles, so you know you are buying the best.

Easter is approaching and as usual the residents of the island of Chios in Greece will attack each others churches with rockets.

More than 25,000 rockets are launched between 2 rival churches in a tradition that is centuries old. It is thought that the tradition dates back to the days when the islanders used to use cannon to defend themselves from attacking pirates.

Locals standby with fire crews to protect their property from the thousands of stray rockets that go hither and thither as they try to hit the bell tower of the opposing church.

We hope you like these fantastic pictures from the town of Vrondandos and their bizarre tradition.

To view a video of some of the entertainment from the event click here

Yes kids, believe it or not young people had to work for their entertainment in the olden days.

Above you can see a group of rosy cheeked youngsters out collecting firewood for their bonfire. In those days the bonfire was just as important as the fireworks and it was a matter of pride to ensure that your street/village/club had a bigger bonfire than your local rivals. It was not uncommon for young wags (wag meaning something different in those days, not the wife or girlfriend of a footballer) to sneak out to light the bonfire of their “enemies” the night before bonfire night, leaving them with a pile of ashes rather than a big pile of wood.

Such acts often met similar retaliation and this could mean that no-one had a bonfire come the big night. Such is the nature of man.

We must only hope that these barrels did not contain anything flammable. Can you imagine a group of kids doing something like this nowadays? No, you can’t, because health and safety would have a fit, saying such things as:

“Climbing on top of a pile of wood, terribly unsafe.”

“Those barrels could slip and fall at any time.”

“This is an outrage.”

and other such mutterings.

However surely these are rights of passage for a young lad and made them appreciate their hard work  when they see the flames licking up from their bonfire heap and think “I made that”. This is something that is sadly lacking in todays culture. The kids would much rather sit and play their new computer game “bonfire builder 4: The finding of the pallet”

Now this is definately not the safest lad in the village.

It was common in the good old days for everyone to get rid of all their old crap during the bonfire season. Anything that could burn would be thrown onto the pile. Busted old sofas, the obligatory smelly urine stained mattress (when not occupying a skip), broken doors, piles of old tyres (as seen in the photograph above) that would billow out thick black toxic smoke for days. Nothing was banned from being thrown on a fire, after all, our fire had to be bigger than theirs. Nowadays of course, you cannot burn a piece of wood if it has a dot of paint on it as this will pollute our clean air.

We are all for clean air laws and would not condone burning anything that did not comply. But it did feel natural to launch practically any household item onto a fire, it was like a Spring cleaning, in Autumn and positively enforceed community participation.

And this is what is missing today; Community participation. The image above shows people dancing gaily (that meant something different in the olden days too) sharing each others company and coming together in a spirit of community. This was back in the days when people knew their neighbours forenames and surnames and spoke to each other more than just the morning nod as everyone jumps into their cars. Times were when a man felt like he belonged to street or town or village and did not just live there.

The bonfire was an integral part of this belonging, and like bonfire festivals and events that still go on around the world is a vital part of bringing people together. After all, many people still call it Bonfire Night.

What do you call the 5th of November?

a)Bonfire Night

b)Guy Fawkes Night

c)Fireworks Night

Leave us a comment and let us know.

The city of Tultepec in Mexico has a very unusual way of celebrating their favourite saint. They strap a whole load of rockets and fireworks to large wooden bulls and the brave young men of the city dance around them as the rockets fly all over the place!

Tultepec is the Mexico’s home of fireworks, with more fireworks makers there than you can shake a rocket stick at with about 80% of the country’s fireworks produced there since the 18^th century. San Juan de Dios is the patron saint of firework makers and a week long national pyrotechnic fair commemorates him. He is famed for rescuing patients from a burning hospital. Nowadays firework manufacturers pray to San Juan to protect their workshops and keep them safe from fire. The annual pyrotechnic fair was started in 1989 to safeguard the rich history and promote the skills of the pyrotechnicians of Mexico.

Firework “Castillo’s” or castles are fashioned in the shape of bulls and other animals in light wood. These are then covered with paper and decorated and painted. They are completely covered in fireworks and rockets and the young daredevils (madmen) jump around them and shout FIRE! FIRE! As they wear only hoods and thick jumpers to protect themselves. The bravest men will stand next to the bulls for as long as they can, it is a matter of pride to stand right next to the exploding structures. Needless to say there are often injuries and minor burns are very common serious burns, sadly are also rather common.

It’s a bit ironic that to honour the saint who saved patients from his hospital, saved them from burning, the locals burn themselves. Surely San Juan de Dios did not like people burning? Or else he would not have saved them? This is the way of traditions however and logic is not always required.

Check the videos, say wow at the madness you see there and please please do not try any of this at home.