Lake Biwa, JapanSee one of the world’s most dazzling fireworks displays at Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake, where an annual festival features more than 10,000 fireworks, along with harmonizing water jets.
These are 12 of the world’s most spectacular fireworks displays
Fireworks have illuminated celebrations for centuries. Here are some sparkling shows from New York to Paris to Sydney.
ByNational Geographic Staff and Karen Gardiner
July 2, 2021
Independence Day in the United States is fast approaching, and while celebrations may not be back to their pre-pandemic normal, like every Fourth of July since 1777, this year’s celebrations will undoubtedly involve fireworks.
Why? “A year after the U.S. declared independence on July 4, 1776, accounts from both John Adams and the Virginia Gazette say the former colonists launched fireworks to celebrate,” writes Claire Wolters in a Nat Geo explainer on how fireworks came to America. But these quintessential emblems of nationalism have a history that dates back millennia and circles the world.
The story of fireworks begins in about 200 B.C., when people in Liyuan, China, created firecrackers by tossing bamboo stalks into pits of fire. With the advent of gunpowder, pyrotechnics really took off. They lit up Europe in the Middle Ages and, of course, remain an integral part of Lunar New Year celebrations. Polychromatic displays became a global phenomenon soon after Italian pyrotechnicians, in the 1830s, leveraged metallic powders to create specific colors.
From fizzling handheld sparklers to elaborately orchestrated displays, fireworks have been a part of celebrations for centuries. But be careful. Cities across the U.S West have banned Fourth of July fireworks amid wildfire concerns.
Here are 12 places to see the best pyrotechnic shows around the world. These photographs capture sparkling scenes over Japan’s Lake Biwa, Australia’s Sydney Harbor, and Washington D.C.’s National Mall, among other destinations.
See one of the world’s most dazzling fireworks displays at Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake, where an annual festival features more than 10,000 fireworks, along with harmonizing water jets.
Photograph by Yu Kodama, Getty Images
A spectacular shower of explosions cascades over the Sydney Harbor Bridge during the 2018 New Year’s Eve celebration.
Photograph by Robert Wallace, Wallace Media Network/Alamy Stock Photo
Fireworks illuminate the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day, a holiday that commemorates the storming of Paris’s Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, an event that ushered in the French Revolution.
Photograph by Aurore Marechal, Sipa/AP Images
Fireworks frame the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol building during Fourth of July celebrations on the National Mall.
Photograph by Richard Ellis, Alamy Stock Photo
Spectators wear helmets as protection against exploding “beehives” filled with thousands of rockets. Being struck by a firework is considered a blessing at Taiwan’s Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival.
Photograph by An Rong Xu, Getty Images
The East River in New York City glows reflects the explosions of Fourth of July fireworks.
Photograph by Beboy_ltd, Getty Images
Fireworks burst from the sides of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa building on New Year’s Eve in 2019. In 2014, this show of 500,000 fireworks earned the emirate a Guinness world record for world’s biggest fireworks display.
Photograph by Xinhua, Eyevine/Redux
In Vancouver, the Honda Celebration of Light has been an essential summertime activity for almost three decades. Dazzling displays of fireworks, choreographed to music, glimmer over English Bay in British Columbia.
Photograph by jamesvancouver, Getty Images
A man watches fireworks burst over Copacabana Beach during New Year’s celebrations.
Photograph by Bruna Prado, AP Images
Thousands gather each year to see Thunder Over Louisville, one of the largest firework displays in North America and the annual kickoff event of the Kentucky Derby Festival.
Photograph by Avocadodigital, Getty Images
Cape Town ushers in a new year with a stellar fireworks display over the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, backdropped by Table Mountain.
Photograph by Russell Kord, Alamy Stock Photo
Hotels and casinos along the Las Vegas Strip compete to present the best light show during New Year’s Eve and Fourth of July celebrations.
