Editing Firecracker (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of gunpowder}}

The predecessor of the firecracker was a type of heated [[bamboo]], used as early as 200 BCE, that exploded when heated continuously. The Chinese name for firecrackers, ''baozhu'' ({{Lang|zh|爆竹}}), literally means "exploding bamboo."<ref name="mtmenc">{{cite book|author=David Curtis Wright|editor1=Thomas F. Glick|editor2=Steven J. Livesey|editor3=Faith Wallis|title=Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia2|date=29 September 2005|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-96930-7|page=211}}</ref> After the invention of gunpowder, gunpowder firecrackers had a shape that resembled bamboo and produced a similar sound, so the name "exploding bamboo" was retained.<ref name="Baker">{{cite book|author=Hugh Baker|title=Ancestral Images: A Hong Kong Collection|date=1 June 2011|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|isbn=978-988-8083-09-1|page=184}}</ref> In traditional Chinese culture, firecrackers were used to scare off enemies or evil spirits.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}