The fireworks emoji is your go-to digital sky boom—perfect for New Year’s countdowns, championship wins, album drops, graduation flexes, or any moment that deserves a dramatic ‘cue the confetti cannon’ energy. It screams celebration, hype, and big-stage vibes, but it’s also hilarious when used ironically—like deploying a full pyrotechnics finale because you finally folded the laundry. People pair it with party popper and clapping emojis to turn any announcement into a victory parade, and it doubles as a flirty “sparks flying” wink after a great date or spicy text.
On Apple/iOS, it pops as colorful, glossy starbursts—think pinks, purples, blues, and golds—with radiating lines and tiny twinkle dots that read instantly as “night-sky fireworks,” even without a literal sky background. It looks more like grand aerial shells than the handheld sparkler (that’s the other emoji), giving it that big finale, grand-reveal energy. iMessage even has a full-screen Fireworks effect, so texting “Happy New Year” can turn your chat into Times Square.
Culturally, it shows up for New Year’s Eve worldwide, Diwali lights, Fourth of July, Lunar New Year, and Bonfire Night—any event where the sky gets loud and sparkly. In meme-land, it’s used for “major W,” “let’s gooo,” product launches, weddings, or to dramatically celebrate the smallest wins with maximum overkill. Drop it when you want a post to feel like a finale, a trailer drop, or the last chorus at a stadium show.
Definition
A firework is a carefully engineered explosive that was invented in China and is used to deliver visual and audible celebration across the world. In the United States, best known for the celebration of Independence Day (July 4th). Seen at entertainment destinations, festivals and amusement parks year round, especially vacation destinations like Disneyland, Disneyworld, and Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki, Hawaii. An emoji of celebration, entertainment and excitement.
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
This emoji was part of the proprietary / non-standardized emoji set first introduced by Japanese carriers like Softbank. These emojis became part of the Apple iPhone starting in iOS 2.2 as an unlockable feature on handsets sold in English speaking countries.
In iOS 5 / OSX 10.7, the underlying code that the Apple OS generates for this emoji was changed.
On the 4th of July you might light these. Similar to the Sparkle icon. In fact they are the same. No sweat of our backs though. Keep up the good work Apple! old iEmoji name: Bright Star at Night A bright yellow shown glinting or twinkling at night.
Proposed Unicode Information & Notes
Unicode Category
Artifacts
Unicode Subcategory
Celebration Symbols
Names & Annotations
FIREWORKS
Symbol Information
U+1F386 proposed
Proposal Identifier
e-515
Character Mapping/Crosswalk Notes
DoCoMo
[花火]
KDDI
#357 打ち上げ花火 「打chi上ge花火」 U+E5CC SJIS-F7FC JIS-787E
Softbank
#314 #old113 打ち上げ花火 「打chi上ge花火」 U+E117 SJIS-F757
Emoji Character Encoding Data
Emoji Code Version
iOS 4 Code
UTF-8 Unicode Character(s)
UTF-8 Character Count
1
Character(s) In Input
AppleColorEmoji Font (available in OSX/iOS)
Decimal HTML Entity

Hexadecimal HTML Entity

Hex Code Point(s)
e117
Formal Unicode Notation
U+E117
Decimal Code Point(s)
57623
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)
0xEE 0x84 0x97
UTF-8 Hex Bytes
EE 84 97
UTF-8 Octal Bytes
356 204 227
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)
0xE117
UTF-16 Hex
e117
UTF-16 Dec
57623
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)
0x0000E117
UTF-32 Hex
E117
UTF-32 Dec
57623
Python Src
u"\uE117"
PHP Src
"\xee\x84\x97"
C/C++/Java Src
"\uE117"
Emoji Code Version
iOS 5 - Current
UTF-8 Unicode Character(s)
🎆
UTF-8 Character Count
1
Character(s) In Input
AppleColorEmoji Font (available in OSX/iOS)
🎆
Decimal HTML Entity
🎆
Hexadecimal HTML Entity
🎆
Hex Code Point(s)
1f386
Formal Unicode Notation
U+1F386
Decimal Code Point(s)
127878
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)
0xF0 0x9F 0x8E 0x86
UTF-8 Hex Bytes
F0 9F 8E 86
UTF-8 Octal Bytes
360 237 216 206
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)
0xD83C 0xDF86
UTF-16 Hex
d83cdf86
UTF-16 Dec
55356 57222
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)
0x0001F386
UTF-32 Hex
01F386
UTF-32 Dec
127878
Python Src
u"\U0001F386"
PHP Src
"\xf0\x9f\x8e\x86"
C/C++/Java Src
"\uD83C\uDF86"
Emoji Character Encoding Data (equivalent or similiar)
