Particles

Particles are special graphical effects in Minecraft that are created when certain events occur, such as explosions, rainfall, and smelting in a furnace.

Behavior
Particles are rendered as front-facing 2D sprites, meaning they always face the player. They disappear after a short animation, in which they may change sizes and rotate, and cycle between a number of animation sprites. They collide with solid blocks and are slowed by cobwebs, but are unaffected by other entities.

The command can be used to create particles.

Depending on the player's video settings, some particles may not appear.

Types of particles
The types of particles and their technical names are displayed below. Particle names in italics are shown when using the "Minimal" particles setting.

(What bug exactly is this on the bug tracker?) Note that the calculation method for blocks with metadatas when using in the params tag of the command, is (id+(data*4096))

Trivia

 * Most particle colors can be changed using resource packs, however the color of smoke particles used in redstone, portals, and endermen can not be changed without mods.
 * Status effect particles will appear where your face is pointing.
 * Bubble and suspended particles seem to only appear when they are in water (pre 1.10).
 * The "mobappearance" particle will always follow the player regardless of what its location has been set to.
 * Redstone repeaters spawn particles, but redstone comparators do not.
 * In Bedrock Edition, burning entities emit rounded particles with a fire animation.

Gallery
Částice Partikel Partículas Particules パーティクル 입자 Deeltjes Cząsteczki Частицы พาร์ทิเคิล 颗粒