Guy Fawkes Night
- Thread starter Aurora Black
- Start date
Aurora Black
Professional Dreamer
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2005
- Posts
- 14,318
arienette said:I saw V for Vendetta and that's about as far as my knowledge of this goes.
I still need to rent that out. Oh well, after NaNo's over.
Jenny_Jackson
Psycho Bitch
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2006
- Posts
- 10,872
Drawn and quartered. Good fodder for Erotic Horror maybe
gauchecritic
When there are grey skies
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2002
- Posts
- 7,076
R. Richard said:
Not really. It's essentially exactly the same.
Dr_Strabismus
Fuckit, it's just atoms
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2006
- Posts
- 1,196
You have to admit it's a lot louder, though.
Dr_Strabismus
Fuckit, it's just atoms
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2006
- Posts
- 1,196
The place to be on Nov 5th is my old stomping ground, Lewes in Sussex, where they take the thing to Wicker Man levels most years.
matriarch
Rotund retiree
- Joined
- May 25, 2003
- Posts
- 22,743
Dr_Strabismus said:
Indeed.
Their celebrations ALWAYS get a mention on South Today. They even have their own website. Take a look.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40496000/jpg/_40496459_lewes2ap203ok.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40496000/jpg/_40496457_lewes1ap203ok.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40496000/jpg/_40496461_lewes3ap203ok.jpg
matriarch
Rotund retiree
- Joined
- May 25, 2003
- Posts
- 22,743
There's a small seaside town in the extreme north-east corner of Essex, just before that county becomes Suffolk. There I was brought up and spent the first 28 years of my life.
November 5th is a big event there, with organised celebrations going on all around the town, and the surrounding area. Firework displays were organised along with mammoth bonfires erected on local green areas days before the event with hundreds of people gradually adding wood from more sources than you could imagine to encourage the fire to grow sometimes to over 20 feet. When lit, it would burn for hours, and often the embers would still be glowing long into the night.
In smaller villages, this one bonfire would usually be the only one, with everyone coming together on the green, or in a farmer's field for the party. Potatoes would be baked in the fire, hot dogs cooked, soup heated in large couldrons, toffee apples dished out to ecstatic children (as if they needed the sugar buzz to get them high ) and a firework display set off at a safe distance to the assembled throng.
But where I lived, we had the added pleasure of a parade. Organisations and businesses, even schools, throughout the town would work long and furiously over the preceeding months to produce their floats for the procession, usually on a topic that was well known locally. Just like summer carnivals, there was a carnival queen and attendants. But this was way better than a summer carnival. It was at night, it was noisy, it was alive with lights and colour - it was exciting. The procession was always held on the Saturday closest to Nov 5th, and would start at one end of the town (there were actually 3 small area in a row, at one time all villages in their own right, which all run into each other.), and process its way all the way along one of the two roads leading into and out, a distance of around 2 miles - pretty slow going on foot. The whole procession was always started with a policeman on a motorbike. At the front of the procession would be the torch 'boys' (who were actually boys and girls), with blackened faces, carrying what looked like heavy duty food cans on the top of heavy poles, each one alight with naked flame (good god, health and safety!! ). There were usually around 50 of them, between the ages of 10 and 15. I actually managed to do it one year, and I was ecstatic.
Following on behind the boys, would be the big heads. Locals wearing huge papiermache heads, which sat over their own heads, on a frame over their shoulders. These things were VERY heavy after a while, and I still don't know how they did it all those hours.
The rest of the procession followed along behind, with floats, bands, and the usual following of older children walking along the pavement, weaving in and out of the crowds gathered along the whole route to watch, and throw their pennies on to the floats, or put in the collecting buckets carried by what seemed like hundreds of walking participants in all manner of fancy dress and costume. All the money collected would go to local charities.
We lived at the far end of the town, and so we would take our place on the route, usually at the point where the two main roads joined, which was one of the resting places for the procession before they turned and made their way back to the start, still cheered and applauded by hundreds of people. There wasn't a single part of the route that was not crammed with families all eager to see the procession. It was, in effect, the biggest night of the year for the whole town.
It was inevitably cold, even wet some years, but no-one worried about being bundled up in coats, scarves, hats, gloves and thick boots. For us kids, it was the anticipation of getting a hot dog when the van appeared at the turning point, a bottle of fizzy drink, and if we were lucky, either a toffee apple or candy floss (cotton candy). The excitement level was unbelievable.
I remember those days of simple entertainment with much pleasure, and the wish that my own children had been able to enjoy the Guy Fawkes carnival.
November 5th is a big event there, with organised celebrations going on all around the town, and the surrounding area. Firework displays were organised along with mammoth bonfires erected on local green areas days before the event with hundreds of people gradually adding wood from more sources than you could imagine to encourage the fire to grow sometimes to over 20 feet. When lit, it would burn for hours, and often the embers would still be glowing long into the night.
In smaller villages, this one bonfire would usually be the only one, with everyone coming together on the green, or in a farmer's field for the party. Potatoes would be baked in the fire, hot dogs cooked, soup heated in large couldrons, toffee apples dished out to ecstatic children (as if they needed the sugar buzz to get them high
) and a firework display set off at a safe distance to the assembled throng.But where I lived, we had the added pleasure of a parade. Organisations and businesses, even schools, throughout the town would work long and furiously over the preceeding months to produce their floats for the procession, usually on a topic that was well known locally. Just like summer carnivals, there was a carnival queen and attendants. But this was way better than a summer carnival. It was at night, it was noisy, it was alive with lights and colour - it was exciting. The procession was always held on the Saturday closest to Nov 5th, and would start at one end of the town (there were actually 3 small area in a row, at one time all villages in their own right, which all run into each other.), and process its way all the way along one of the two roads leading into and out, a distance of around 2 miles - pretty slow going on foot. The whole procession was always started with a policeman on a motorbike. At the front of the procession would be the torch 'boys' (who were actually boys and girls), with blackened faces, carrying what looked like heavy duty food cans on the top of heavy poles, each one alight with naked flame (good god, health and safety!!
). There were usually around 50 of them, between the ages of 10 and 15. I actually managed to do it one year, and I was ecstatic.Following on behind the boys, would be the big heads. Locals wearing huge papiermache heads, which sat over their own heads, on a frame over their shoulders. These things were VERY heavy after a while, and I still don't know how they did it all those hours.
The rest of the procession followed along behind, with floats, bands, and the usual following of older children walking along the pavement, weaving in and out of the crowds gathered along the whole route to watch, and throw their pennies on to the floats, or put in the collecting buckets carried by what seemed like hundreds of walking participants in all manner of fancy dress and costume. All the money collected would go to local charities.
We lived at the far end of the town, and so we would take our place on the route, usually at the point where the two main roads joined, which was one of the resting places for the procession before they turned and made their way back to the start, still cheered and applauded by hundreds of people. There wasn't a single part of the route that was not crammed with families all eager to see the procession. It was, in effect, the biggest night of the year for the whole town.
It was inevitably cold, even wet some years, but no-one worried about being bundled up in coats, scarves, hats, gloves and thick boots. For us kids, it was the anticipation of getting a hot dog when the van appeared at the turning point, a bottle of fizzy drink, and if we were lucky, either a toffee apple or candy floss (cotton candy). The excitement level was unbelievable.
I remember those days of simple entertainment with much pleasure, and the wish that my own children had been able to enjoy the Guy Fawkes carnival.
Similar threads
