Fireworks are always a staple of our Fourth of July activities in America.
Ask most people what they are doing for the Fourth of July, or leading up to it, and fireworks are likely somewhere on the agenda.
However, ask if they know where this tradition began — and they may not know the answer.
The vision for the celebratory tradition is far from new, and officially dates back to America’s earliest days.
On July 4, 1776, the United States declared its independence from Great Britain. The following year was when the first official Independence Day celebrations took place in Philadelphia, which included fireworks illuminating the sky.
“The evening was closed with the ringing of bells,” the Evening Postreported on July 5, 1777. “At night there was a grand exhibition of fireworks (which began and concluded with thirteen rockets) on the Commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated.”
Since then, the tradition has stuck with Americans for the holiday.
What is the history of the fireworks tradition?
In 1776, future President John Adams imagined – in a letter to his wife, Abigail – that a sparkling sky would honor the 13 soon-to-be-independent colonies every year from that point onward.
The man who would become the second president of the U.S. wrote, in part, on July 3, 1776, “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.
“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,” according to the National Archives.
