Judas belt
A Judas belt is a type of firecracker that produces multiple explosions.
Etymology
Popular in the Philippines during New Year's Eve celebrations, it is known as Sinturón ni Hudas (Tagalog, "belt/cincture of Judas," from the Spanish cinturón de Judas). The name comes from a dying Catholic tradition during Holy Week, wherein a chain of firecrackers is strapped to an effigy of Judas Iscariot and then lit up.
In El Salvador, the firecracker is known as Ametralladora or Metralleta (Spanish, "machine gun"), and also mainly used during Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Description
A Judas belt consists of a number of small explosive rounds, each one typically 2" long and 1/2" in diameter, arranged sequentially along a common fuse.
The belt is either laid out on the ground or suspended from something like a tree or wall. The end of the fuse is lit, and as the fuse burns, it ignites each of the explosives in turn at a rate of up to 1000 rounds per minute. The noise produced is similar to that of a machine gun, but slightly irregular due to the inherent differences between the rounds.
Typical belts contain only two to three hundred, while those containing up to ten thousand rounds are not unknown.
Safety
Due to the proximity of the individual rounds, it is possible (and common) for an unexploded round to be thrown some distance by the explosive force of the adjacent one, before exploding itself. This unpredictable nature makes the Judas belt more dangerous than it seems.