Editing Fireworks (section)

===Catalonia===
Fireworks are an essential element of popular festival in [[Catalonia]], especially the patron saint day for each Catalan town or city, usually called <em>Festa Major</em>. <em>Coet</em> (rocket) is the generic term for all kinds of pyrotechnic devices. Professional aerial displays are less common than the use of ground based fireworks by members of ritual crews.<ref>Erickson, B. (2011). Utopian virtues: Muslim neighbors, ritual sociality, and the politics of convivència. American Ethnologist, 38(1), 114–131. 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01296.x</ref>
[[File:Ball de diables de Vilanova i la Geltrú, francesos mounted on maces and Llucifer's ceptrot at center.png|thumb|Ball de diables de Vilanova i la Geltrú, francesos mounted on maces and Llucifer's ceptrot at center]]
The <em>Correfoc</em> (firerun) is an element of many festivals, in which crews of <em>diables</em> (devils) dance through the streets to beating drums, holding maces above their heads upon which are mounted <em>carretilles</em> which spin, producing a shower of sparks culminating in an explosive pop. There are three types, <em>les normals</em>, <em>les xiuladores</em>, which emit a whistling sound, and <em>les Arboç</em>, which produce a large umbrella of sparks. Those that emit sparks but do not spin are called <em>francesos</em> and a larger, more potent version are called <em>portuguessos</em>. Those that emit only light are <em>simulators</em> and those that serve to ignite all types of coets are called <em>botafoc</em>, only used by the <em>cap de la colla</em>, or crew chief, who decides when ignition occurs. In many cases, the devils light their carretilles simultaneously by holding all of their maces together and once ignited, begin dancing to the beat of pounding drums. The character of Llucifer carries a larger and more elaborate mace called a <em>ceptrot</em> which is said to "dominate over all," pictured at right. 
[[File:Sostre de foc (ceiling of fire), Vilanova i la Geltrú, Festa Major 2012.png|thumb|Sostre de foc (ceiling of fire), Vilanova i la Geltrú, Festa Major 2012.Spark producing francesos mounted on wire above Plaça de la Vila]]
Pyrotechnics feature in several other Catalan <em>festes</em>:

<em>Nit de San Joan</em> (St. John’s Night, June 14) townsfolk set off rockets from all over town and light bonfires. 

<em>Parliament de Diables</em> (the infernal parliament) is a ritual performance by crews of devils in which characters such as Lucifer, the Diablessa (portrayed by a man in women’s clothes), and other members of the crew declaim satiric verses commenting on current events, punctuated by pyrotechnic dances.<ref>Erickson, B. (2020). Grotesque logic: Catalan carnival utopias and the politics of laughter. Visual Studies, 36(4–5), 507–523. 10.1080/1472586X.2020.1798810</ref> 

[[La Patum]] is celebrated in Berga on [[Feast of Corpus Christi|Corpus Christi]], which has featured a ball de diables called <em>Els Plens</em> since 1628. In 2005, [[UNESCO]] declared La Patum one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.<ref>Noyes, D. (2003). Fire in the Placa: Catalan Festival Politics After Franco. University of Pennsylvania Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fj339</ref>

The correfoc of the festa major of Vilanova i la Geltrú culminates in a <em>sostre de foc</em> (ceiling of fire) during which a mass of coets attached to wires are strung above the central plaza enabling the assembled multitude to be showered with sparks and explosions from the sky.<ref>Abdelmalek, S, El Correfoc de Vilanova i la Geltrú, en lluita per preservar “l'essència d'una tradició de més de 30 anys”. Eix Diari, 25-07-2023</ref>