In mid April this year I attended a fireworks course down in Christchurch run by the good folks at Firework professionals Ltd. http://www.firework.co.nz. The course ran for two days and covered how fireworks are made, how to handle them safely, how to plan a show, who to get approval from, how to electrically fire a show. About half of the course was theory and the other half was practical. Over the course of the two days we got to fire Mines, Falls, Fountains, Gerindolas, Catherine Wheels, Crackers, Roman Candles, and Starshells.