Paper streamer
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Confetti are small pieces or streamers of paper, mylar, or metallic material which are usually thrown at
celebrations Celebration or Celebrations may refer to: Film, television and theatre * ''Celebration'' (musical), by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, 1969 * ''Celebration'' (play), by Harold Pinter, 2000 * ''Celebration'' (TV series), a Canadian music TV serie ...
, especially parades and weddings. The origins are from the Latin ''confectum'', with ''confetti'' the plural of Italian ''confetto'', small sweet. Modern paper confetti trace back to symbolic rituals of tossing grains and sweets during special occasions, traditional for numerous cultures throughout history as an ancient custom dating back to pagan times, but adapted from sweets and grains to paper through the centuries. Confetti are manufactured in multiple colors, and commercially available confetti come in many different shapes. A distinction is made between confetti and glitter; glitter is smaller than confetti (pieces usually no larger than 1mm) and is universally shiny. Most table confetti are also shiny. While they are called metallic confetti they are actually metallized PVC. The most popular shape is the star. Seasonally, Snowflake Confetti are the most requested shape. Most party supply stores carry paper and metallic confetti. Confetti are commonly used at social gatherings such as parties, weddings, and Bar Mitzvahs. The simplest confetti are simply shredded paper (see ticker-tape parade), and can be made with scissors or a
paper shredder A paper shredder is a mechanical device used to cut sheets of paper into either strips or fine particles. Government organizations, businesses, and private individuals use shredders to destroy private, confidential, or otherwise sensitive docum ...
.
Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
s punched out of scrap paper are also common. A hole punch makes small round chads, and a
ticket punch A ticket punch (or control nippers) is a hand tool for permanently marking admission tickets and similar items of paper or card stock. It makes a perforation and a corresponding chad. A ticket punch resembles a hole punch, differing in that the t ...
makes more elaborate chads. Most pieces of paper flats will flutter as tumblewings giving long flight times. In the early 21st century the use of confetti as a cosmetic addition to trophy presentations at sporting events became increasingly common. In this case, larger strips of paper (typically measuring 20 mm × 60 mm) in colors appropriate to the team or celebration are used. For smaller volumes of confetti, ABS or PVC "barrels" are filled and the confetti is projected via a "cannon" (a small
pressure vessel A pressure vessel is a container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient pressure. Construction methods and materials may be chosen to suit the pressure application, and will depend on the size o ...
) using compressed air or carbon dioxide. For larger venues or volumes of confetti, a venturi air mover powered by carbon dioxide is used to propel significantly larger volumes of confetti greater distances.


History

Since the Middle Ages, in Northern Italy it was common usage for the participants of carnival parades to throw objects at the crowd, mostly mud balls, eggs, coins or fruit. These traditions are still present in some towns in different forms, such as the "Battle of the Oranges" in Ivrea. The use of throwing objects at parades is well documented in Milan since the 14th century. The nobles used to throw candies and flowers during the parades while dames threw eggshells filled with essences and perfumes. Lower-class people mocked the nobles by throwing rotten eggs, and battles among enemy factions or districts became common. In 1597, the city governor
Juan Fernández de Velasco ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
imposed a ban on the eggs throwing, along with banning ''squittaroli'' (spraying liquids in the street) and other immoral behaviors. The custom disappeared for about a century, coming back in the 1700s in the form of launch of small candies, mostly sugar-coated seeds. The seeds used for the sugar candies were mostly Coriander (''coriandolo'' in Italian), a common plantation in the area: the Italian name for confetti is indeed ''coriandoli''.
The candies were expensive, though, and the lower classes often used small chalk balls instead, called ''benis de gess'' (chalk candy). Those were officially defined as "the only material allowed to be thrown during the parades" in an edict by the Prefect of Milan in 1808, but the battles fought with them in the 1800s became too large and dangerous, with hundreds of people involved, leading to a ban of the chalk pellets. People circumvented the ban by using mud balls. In 1875, an Italian businessman from Milan, Enrico Mangili, began selling paper confetti for use in the upcoming ''carnevale di Milano'', the yearly parade held along the streets of the city. At that time, the province of Milan was one of the main hubs of silk manufacturing. Mangili begun collecting the small punched paper disks that were left as a byproduct from the production of the holed sheets used by the
silkworm The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...
breeders as cage bedding, and selling them for profit. The new paper confetti was well received by the customers, being less harmful, funnier and cheaper than the alternatives, and their use quickly replaced previous customs in Milan and northern Italy. '' Scientific American'' recorded that the throwing of paper confetti (plain shredded paper) occurred at the 1885 New Year's Eve in Paris. Paper confetti became common in all of Europe in just a couple of decades later (unlike ticker tape parades, which never received as wide a diffusion as they did in the U.S.). Game shows still used the classic balloon tradition for big wins until the late 1990s.


Alternatives

Some weddings use natural petal confetti. These are made from freeze-dried flower petals and are completely
biodegradable Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. It is generally assumed to be a natural process, which differentiates it from composting. Composting is a human-driven process in which biodegradati ...
. In fact, venues may now only allow these biodegradable versions to be used. Some wedding venues have decided that due to the mess and potential inconvenience caused by the use of confetti to ban its usage completely. One way that this restriction has been circumvented is to use soap bubbles in place of confetti.


Etymology and Italian ''confetti''

The English word '' confetti'' (to denote
Jordan almonds Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan River ...
) is adopted from the Italian
confectionery Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...
of the same name, which was a small sweet traditionally thrown during carnivals. Also known as '' dragée'' or comfit, Italian confetti are
almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...
s with a hard
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
coating; their name equates to French '' confit''. The Italian word for paper confetti is '' coriandoli'' which refers to the
coriander Coriander (;
seeds originally contained within the sweet. By tradition, the Italian ''confetti'' (sugar coated almonds) are given out are thrown at weddings (white coating) and baptisms (blue or pink coating, according to the sex of the newborn baby), or graduations (red coating), often wrapped in a small tulle bag as a gift to the guests. For a wedding, they are said to represent the hope that the new couple will have a fertile marriage. The British adapted the missiles to weddings (displacing the traditional grains or rice symbolising sexual fertility) at the end of the 19th century, using symbolic shreds of coloured paper rather than real sweets.


See also

* Chad (paper), recycling paper fragments into confetti use. *
Confetti candy Confetti candy is a confectionery food product that is prepared with cooked sugar and corn syrup that is formed into sheets, cooled, and then cracked or broken into pieces. It has a hard, brittle texture. To add eye appeal, colored sugar is som ...
* Sulmona * Chaff (countermeasure), metallized paper fragments used for radar jamming


References


External links

* * {{Parties Paper products Party equipment Almonds Italian inventions Candy