PHANTOM FIREWORKS PRESS RELEASES

Fireworks: Not Just for the Fourth

YOUNGSTOWN, OH – Americans are using consumer fireworks to celebrate more holidays than just Independence Day, according to information released by Phantom Fireworks, one of the leading consumer fireworks retailers in the United States.

While fireworks have been associated with Independence Day since our nation’s birth when then future President John Adams forever linked the two in a 1776 letter to his wife Abigail, there has been a marked increase in use of the products for other holidays such as Memorial Day, Labor Day and New Years Eve.

Rick Greenfield, Retail Operations Manager for Phantom Fireworks, reported that sales statistics from the 2008 calendar year demonstrated that, in addition to the primary Independence Day holiday use of fireworks, Americans are using fireworks on an increasing basis for New Years Eve, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Divali, the Asian Indian festival of Lights.

Greenfield said “There is no question that New Years Eve is the second biggest fireworks holiday in the country after July 4th.” Greenfield went on to explain “In Hawaii, because of the strong Asian influence, the use of fireworks, and particularly red firecrackers, to celebrate New Years has actually surpassed July 4th in terms of total fireworks sales. New Years Eve is also big in the southern states and even in northern states when there is mild New Years weather.”

Jerry Bostocky, Phantom’s Vice President of Sales, noted “While Independence Day is the largest traditional fireworks holiday in the middle of the summer, America has taken to ushering the summer in and out on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends with fireworks.”

Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, as early as spring, 2001, pictured the line-up through which the bride and groom walk where they are traditionally pelted with rice very differently. The Weddings magazine had the bride and groom walking through a line-up where guests on either side were framing the walk by holding burning sparklers. Hollywood has popularized the use of full pyrotechnic displays at outdoor wedding ceremonies to punctuate the moment the couple is pronounced man and wife.

Today you can hardly attend an indoor or outdoor rock concert where the use of pyrotechnics isn’t in evidence, and many nighttime professional and amateur sporting events regularly use fireworks displays as an enhancement to the entertainment value of the game.

President Adams predicted in 1776 that the Independence Day holiday would be celebrated “forevermore” with “bonfires” and “illuminations.” To this day, Americans celebrate with the modern incarnation of Adams’ prediction - cookouts and fireworks.

Phantom Fireworks is owned by the B.J. Alan Company, headquartered in Youngstown, Ohio.