Bonfire night

As a child in late 50/60’s my brother and I always made a guy and collected stuff for the bonfire with our dad. On the 5th,always the actual night my grandparents would come around and we had sausages and jacket potatoes cooked in the bonfire. Dad would let off our fireworks and it was a lovely family night. We never celebrated Halloween it was just an American thing!
Nowadays we go with our DD and GC to an organised village display and have fish & chips together afterwards.
I do Halloween activities crafting bits etc with GC and we carve pumpkins together but we batton down the hatches and don’t open the door as I don’t like the trick and treating. It is daddy’s turn for Halloween this year he will take the children trick and treating but on DD turn she is of the same view batten down the hatches let the children dress up and do family activities.

Animals may not get hurt, but they certainly get frightened, which for me is not a good thing.

Obviously Catholics are not very likely to celebrate the foiling of a Catholic conspiracy!

We always had a big fire, as did most people in the neighbourhood. Family and friends would turn up and we'd spend hours by the fire- with wonderful food; baked potatoes, chestnuts done on the fire, bonfire toffee and parkin. The firworks were always a bit rubbish but good fun the next morning finding all the cases and spent rockets. We sat up late into the night.
We didn't have a guy though because we were Catholic but also knew our politics- a strange mix really and quite puzzling to any foreign visitors!
When my kids were little we did the same thing- though not late into the night and the fireworks were much better!
Halloween had only just started to get commercial- I rember what hard work it was making turnip lanterns but much preferable to those horrible pumpkins.
In more recent years we don't bother much- bonfire night has become too censored by the be kind to animals brigade and halloween has just got out of hand as a money making enterprise.
Such a shame really... but the memories are there. No humans are animals ever got hurt. Not at our bonfires.

When I was a child we used to have a shared bonfire event on some wasteland in our street in our small town. One of the construction engineers from a major bridge building project lived in our street and was able to get leftover wood to add to the bonfire. It usually arrived by tipper truck a couple of weeks before and the dads and boys built the bonfire. Potatoes were wrapped in foil and put to cook. I don’t know who made the guy - the older boys I think. People used to cheer if the guy eventually fell into the fire. I think the guy was made of straw. We took our own sparklers. We also had a few fireworks in our garden - a Catherine wheel or two and a rocket placed in a milk bottle. When we moved to a bigger town, bonfires were not common- perhaps the houses were too close together.

Jaberwok

I wonder how many people actually know or understand the origins of Guy Fawkes night and the significance of the fireworks? Mind you, perhaps best to encourage ignorance as it might put ideas into peoples' heads! The bonfire is in fact the celebration of the failed plot, the Guy represents Fawkes, who was in fact hanged. (drawn and quartered was the sentence but he jumped!)

When our sons were away at a Catholic school bonfire night was never celebrated.

on year my brother and sister dressed me ( the youngest) as a guy, old clothes and a plastic mask, sat me outside our house, on the cold pavement and done "penny for the guy" we were on a main route to the town and people walking home from work , not sure what we done with the money possibly sweets.
There used to be a bonfire in the compound near by , we would try and put potatoes in to cook but they were usually black on the outside and raw inside. It was a bit of fun. The older children always looked out for the younger ones.

I don't think for one moment that you are the only one who hated bonfire night winterwhite. Every year casualty departments used to have an influx of people with firework/bonfire related injuries. Some of them life changingly serious and often involving children.
Now bonfires and displays are more regulated there has been a sharp decrease in injuries.

So I’m the only one who hated bonfire night😳. My wellington boots were always too small so my feet were always cold. I hated sudden bangs and still do. I hated the whole idea of the guy and still do. We were never allowed to go close enough to the fire to put our potatoes in properly so they didn’t bake. Our Catherine wheels always stuck and stuttered. Apart from that….

I don't like big bonfire events.
I like them ideally in my own garden - but am happy to go to family or friends.

For me they need to be on the right day though.

I'm happy to make the black peas and parkin and obviously potatoes are a must.

As a girl we always had one in our garden. I felt sorry for my neighbouring friend who wasn't allowed to have anything so messy as a bonfire and who was on several occasions taken home before the fireworks had finished.

Our dog didn't care and just enjoyed the fun.

The joy of beautiful fireworks never diminished for me... I do like to be in control of them really as I like to know what they are called! 🤣

As far as I'm concerned, I'm very happy to "waste" money on them.
So amazing - transient and spectacular... with us for a brief and beautiful moment. 😍

I, then we, used to host a firework party every year for friends, children used to watch from upstairs, to simplify matters, everyone paid £5 and I bought the fireworks from a wholesaler.
Made a huge chilli, beans, sausages and jackets, one person in charge of igniting the fireworks, they were really good evenings, held between Halloween and the 5th on a weekend.

I tend to agree with you, fireworks terrify lots of animals including our elderly Exmoor pony, yes he is brought in to a safe space, but he still hates it. My daughters dog is the same, actually shaking with fear, sometimes night after night. Our cocker spaniel is unmoved by bangs as she used to be active on the shooting scene until she lost one of her front legs in an accident two years ago. As for hedgehogs, even living in deepest Wiltshire, we haven't seen any now for about 10 years,

I wish they would ban fireworks. Poor animals. Also poor hedgehogs that get buried in the fires. Blooming waste of good money!

Still do celebrate it. Grandchildren are now in their twenties and still troop over for fireworks, roasting marshmallows, fire is now in the chimaera, and we no longer make and burn a guy - usual food of barbecue chicken, sausages, corn cobs, Cole slaw. Followed by Parkin, ice cream and a chocolate fondu with fruit.
Son and daughter also troop over - mostly for the food I think😄😄. Fewer dogs now though 😢😢. Lost one this year, and one is too old to come. Still next year hopefully a new puppy will be with us. Son is looking to get one after Christmas. 🥳🥳 I shall be chief puppy sitter.

If it doesn’t coincide with Lewes, they usually go there to watch the fun as well.

Blowing up the Houses of Parliament! Do you not think that there could be some who would rejoice?!

Jaberwok I can't answer for everybody but I think it is still quite common knowledge that, very briefly, The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt by a gang of Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, to blow up the Houses of Parliament. My GS's know about this from watching 'Horrible Histories'.
The rhyme, 'Please to remember the fifth of November. Gunpowder, treason and plot' is still known to many of us.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the event is marked every year in Lewes, East Sussex. What I did not mention is that effigies of The Pope and Guy Fawkes, among others, are burned on the Lewes bonfire every year.

Not quite sure if I understand your comment about it being 'best to encourage ignorance as it might put ideas into peoples' heads'.

The last actual bonfire I attended was put on by a local scout group. I’ve never seen such a huge blaze - it was hair raising - and it threatened to get out of hand so they had to damp it down. The fireworks were wonderful though.

I think all we children knew the origins of bonfire night - hence the rhyme “remember remember the fifth of November; gunpowder treason and plot……”. My recollections were similar to others. We lived in a court of five terraced houses and bonfire night was a communal affair with all contributing the usual fare. We bought our fireworks with pennies scrounged from passers by as we paraded our guy round the streets and the odd box contributed by a parent or two. As it was the day after my birthday I was always required to “share out” my birthday cake!

I wonder how many people actually know or understand the origins of Guy Fawkes night and the significance of the fireworks? Mind you, perhaps best to encourage ignorance as it might put ideas into peoples' heads! The bonfire is in fact the celebration of the failed plot, the Guy represents Fawkes, who was in fact hanged. (drawn and quartered was the sentence but he jumped!)

Halloween was always big in Scotland. Children used to go out 'guising' - visit neighbours and say ''please for my halloween" and were then obliged to sing a song or recite a rhyme in return for a handful of sweeties or nuts. It was all very innocent and we made our own disguises and masks. None of the commercial tat cluttering up the shops today.
Of course, all this happened after the war and Guy Fawkes was unheard-of until 1945. As it also happened to be my birthday, we always had a fireworks party, 'We would line up in the front window and watch my dad and uncle set off the fireworks with the stubs of their cigarettes. We weren't allowed near them until we were considered responsible enough as my dad was a scientist who knew more than most about gunpowder - if not 'treason and plot. |Now the 'wheel is turned full circle' and the nearest I'm likely to be to a firework display is at my family's upstairs window where I can get a good view of the local bonfire. .

I always took the DDs to an organised (local Freemasons) bonfire. Food bought onsite. They always enjoyed it and we’d have sparklers to light and hold in gloved hands.

To buck the trend, I now like Halloween, especially where DD1 lives. The estate roads are virtually closed (voluntarily) and hundreds of parents, often in fancy dress, walk around the streets with their children, who are in various outfits.. It’s a strict understanding that houses with baskets of sweets outside are not disturbed as are those with nothing outside. However, houses which are decorated can be knocked at and the householder will offer the kids a choice of sweets - strictly one each. It’s all over by 7pm, but it’s amazing to see the usual deserted roads so busy with families out, meeting and greeting.

I used to celebrate bonfire night with my cousins. They had a big garden and they built a bonfire and burned the guy in the traditional manner. Looking back, this was rather odd as they were devout Catholics.

When I was a child in the 60's Halloween was just a word we heard on American TV shows. There was no such thing over here but the excitement over Bonfire Night was palpable. We had a huge garden and every year dad built an enormous bonfire. From an early age I remember going to buy fireworks on my own from the local store. You could buy them individually then, like a pick and mix, and I'd get quite a large bag full for five shillings. My older brother usually made the Guy. He was/is rather artistic and it was uncannily lifelike.

Mum would make her infamous cider punch and everyone, including the children, had a large mug full. Potatoes would be put in the bonfire to bake which we hooked out with sticks and she'd also do sausages. Those baked potatoes slathered in butter were the best I've ever eaten.

Dad would light the fireworks but my brother would usually chuck a few bangers around or put one under a dustbin lid which would go off like a bomb. We'd run and squeal with delight. These days my parents would probably be arrested and the kids taken into care.

We never did anything for Halloween it had come other the pond by the time my children were young but apart from a bit of dressing up with friends it wasn’t much The grandkids did a few trips in costumes but their all fully adult now so again nothing to join in Nit too keen on Halloween I must say

My dad always did a bonfire and set off fireworks in the back garden I used to be allowed to hold the sparklers under supervision, being a lonely child it was just that really.
With my own children we always went to a public one at the local fire station the kids loved it and getting the jacket potatoes afterwards When the two grandkids that lived in Uk were small we always went to a public one but they were by then expensive and bigger so they weren’t as good (I didn’t think) the other 5 grandkids all lived overseas and didn’t have Bonfire night
Now I look at the price of public displays (and the weather) and stay in