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Fireworks are explosive devices that burn with colored flames and sparks. Fireworks are used in pyrotechnic exhibitions and displays.

These devices are used in producing one or more loud bangs or striking displays of light, or a figure or figures in plain or colored fire, by the combustion of materials that burn in some peculiar manner, as gunpowder, sulfur, metallic filings, and various salts. The most common feature of fireworks is a paper or pasteboard tube filled with the combustible material. A number of these tubes or cases are often combined so as to make, when kindled, a great variety of sparkling shapes, often variously colored. The skyrocket is a common form of firework. The name is also given to various combustible preparations used in war.

Home Fireworks in the United States (Independence Day)

During the American Independence Day (popularly known as the Fourth of July), retail fireworks stands spring up around the nation in states that don't severely restrict or outright ban all fireworks for safety reasons (such as California, for example). Popular types of legal use-at-home fireworks include:

• Roman candles
• Fountain batteries (not the alkaline, DC type)
• Sparklers
• "Snakes" (turn to ash)
• Saturn missile batteries

Note that South Carolina sells more explosive fireworks in addition to these popular types that are usually referred to as "firecrackers". Interestingly, South Carolina also sells fireworks at stands open year-round.

In the U.S., Native American tribes that have reservation lands often sell firecrackers that are not legal for sale outside of its reservation. These include, but are not limited to:

• Cherry bombs
• M-80 firecrackers
• M-100 firecrackers
• "Black cats"
• Mortar tubes