Why do we burst crackers?

Of course, we burst Diwali Crackers to celebrate

happiest of the occasions and enhance the festivity of
the atmosphere. The Bursting of crackers and lighting up
of arrays of Diyas are two most important and integral
part of Diwali tradition. Diwali would be left incomplete
without bursting of crackers to ones heart content. From
youngsters to the adults, we Indians are highly fond of
bursting crackers to maximize the experience of the
festive celebration.
Our Forefathers believed that bursting crackers on the
festive occasion will drive away the evil spirit and
simultaneously they lighted up the Diyas to welcome the
goodness into their home. There are several legends that
exist in India for the celebration of Diwali. Some of them
are as follows:
Victory of Lord Rama over the evil demon Ravana
and he returned to his Kingdom after years long
exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman. The
People of Ayodhya celebrated the happy occasion by
lighting up the Diyas in everyones home to welcome
their king.
Victory of Lord Krishna and his consort
Sathayabhama over the evil and egoistic demon
Narasura and the demon before his death pleaded
to Lord Krishna for the forgiveness, and then he
requested that his people should celebrate his death
every year with joy, by waering new dress,
exchanging sweets and bursting crackers.
Victory of Lord Vishnus Vamana avatar over the
arrogant but generous king bali and teaching a
lesson to drive away the evil characters that resided
inside the King bali.
Lord Krishna protected the people of the Gokula
village by lifting up the Govardhan Mountain with his
finger and saving the people from the torrential rain
caused by the wrath of the Demigod Indra.
It is believed that the Diwali is the goddess Lakshmi
birthday, she visits each and every houses on the
occasion of the Diwali day, bless those house which
are brightly lit with health, happiness and wealth
remove the ignorance, greed, and other evils from
the house.
In most parts of the India, The Diwali is the celebrated as
a victory festival, the victory of the good over the evil.
Whatever, maybe the reason for the celebration of
Diwali, the central theme remains the same. Our
forefathers believed that the sound from bursting of the
crackers would reach the gods in the heaven and convey
the message that people are commemorating the victory
of the gods over evil.
Scientific Background:
The scientist believe that the sounds of cracker bursting
awakens and alerts the subconscious system and bring
the individual to an excited stated, creating a euphoric
environment for the celebration. It is also believed that
there is a scientific significance behind the bursting of
crackers on the Diwali occasion. In most parts of the
India, the Diwali celebration coincides with the change of
climate, a breeding season for the insects, during which
the insects multiply at an exponential rate. It is believed
that sulphur gas released while bursting crackers helps in
controlling the breeding of the insects, hence preventing
various diseases that may arise otherwise.
Different types of crackers:
During the earlier stages crackers history, the name
Crackers only meant the sparklers and color matches
and the flower pots. But those days are gone, now we
have wide varieties of crackers available in market. The
Indian people celebrate Diwali The festival of light by
bursting various types of crackers. The some of the
popular kinds of crackers that are burst during Diwali are
as follows:
Flower pots or fountains: The fountains or the flower
pots are the devices that sit on the ground and emit
showers of coloured sparks upwards up to the height of
about ten feet when lighted. Nowadays, fountains come
in a pack of 4 or more. The larger fountain contains
multiple tubes to go off in sequence thus they provide
much longer lasting displays.
The Ground Spinner: The ground spinner or the Ground
Chakra is a circular type, which spins around in a circle,
shooting out colouful sparks and flames.
Sparklers: The sparklers is a small handheld metal stick
coated with chemical solution, which when lit, emits a
constant streams of sparks. The waving of the sticks
around in the darkness of the evening creates dazzling
shapes. Once the coated solution that feeds sparks gets
over, the sparkler will die out. The sparkler also comes in
red and green color.
Rockets & Missiles: They are stabilized and guided by a
long stick, when ignited they blast up into the sky and
eject different kinds of effects such as peony, willow,
crossette, chrysanthemum, etc.
Parachutes: The parachutes are of two types- day and
night. The daytime parachutes are of two types: The
single daytime parachutes launches a canister high into
the air, which bursts into one or two parachutes. The
multiple shot has a canister which releases hundred
different colored parachutes, which then rains down
everywhere. The night time parachutes are same as that
of the day time one except the fact they are much more
colorful. The paratroopers falling slowly are actually a
small colored smoke canister which ingites on the way
down, making it easier to track.
Snakes : They usually comes in form of small black pellets
which when lit, emit bright, disorienting flashing of light
along with long brittle carbon ash, which gives an
appearance of a snake coming out from the ground.
Wheels: They are designed such that they can be
attached to some sort of vertical support, typically a nail.
They spin around emitting showers of sparks along with a
whistling sound, give an appearance of a fire blazing
circle floating in the midair.
Cakes: The cakes are the popular kind of aerial repeaters,
which usually consist of many tubes attached together,
which range from half a dozen to over two hundred.
They cakes have fuse on the lower side, which when lit
gives out a variety of aerial firework effects which lasts
for a long duration. Some of popular ones are the 12
shots, 50 shots, 100 shots and 250 shots.
Garland: The garland are the string of firecracker fused
together to the central main fuse, which when ignited
produce a continues sound effect of for the long
duration. They garlands are named as 50 wala, 100 wala,
500 wala, 1000, wala and 10,000 walas based on the
number of firecrackers fused together. Check festivezone
Standard Fireworks Price List 2014.
Twinkling stars: The twinkling stars are the small
handheld rope of chemical coated firework, which when
lit shoots of the sparkles in the downward fashion
producing a bright display of light.
Pencil: They are hollow cardboard tubes filled with
chemicals, closed by a wooden stopper at one end and
fuse at other end. When ignited by holding horizontally
by hand, they give out a colorful flush of sparks.
Color matches : The colour matches looks similar to the
that of the safety matches but when lit gives out the
colorful flame which may be red or green depending
upon the composition of the chemicals on the
matchstick.
Sound crackers: Lashmi, Krishna, Sparrow and bijili types
of crackers belong to this category. The produce an
auditory sound effect of large decibel when ignited. They
comes in pack of 4 to 6 crackers in a packet.
Hope you enjoyed reading the concise history of crackers
and how it became the integral part of Indian life.
Celebrate this Diwali with firecrackers from festivezone
with cash / card on delivery option. The Festivezone, The
online Crackers megastore wishes you all a happy and
safe Diwali.