To think that Bonfire night is slowly dying out

[IndiGlowie]

It seems to me that Bonfire Night will gradually die away as a lot of younger people don't really like or approve of fireworks. I understand people getting annoyed and upset when pets are traumatised usually by shits letting them off long before 5th November. I haven't seen a penny for a guy on top of a bonfire for years .

I think Halloween has grown more in popularity and has gone from nothing to something huge possibly down to the internet .

Easter used to be bigger than what it is now when there used to be Easter Bonnet parades and a lot more people went to Church.

Christmas traditions Also fading away no Carol singers , decorations such as Holly and mistletoe and cards are dying out .

I predict New Years Eve Celebrations will increase in popularity as the years go by .

Makes me sad- I love bonfire night.
I think big displays are a lot of work to organise, so places are reluctant to do them.

Bonfire nights are still popular round here, but I don’t disagree OP. My children really dislike fireworks and always have so I’m not bothered about it. I also dislike the level firework displays have reached where they seem really chaotic and violently choreographed.

I don’t see a harm in Halloween getting bigger, even if it does seem ‘Americanized’. What’s wrong with that? My kids have always adored Halloween and I like a spooky film, a pumpkin pie and trick or treating. There doesn’t seem much fun to hook onto bonfire night.

Jeez not a chance here, it’s fireworks constantly for weeks

I love Bonfire Night and fireworks, best part of the year along with Christmas!
Love going to a good firework display, watching the fireworks and having a few drinks / hotdog/pie whatever
Still loads of events round here so doesn't seem to be dying out, hope not anyway!

I think Fireworks and Bonfire night celebrate a particular event in our history and I would hate that to be lost. Halloween with pumpkins does not mean as much. However selling the gear to parents is obviously a money spinner.

I do prefer organised fireworks events only and no sales to the public as unfortunately fireworks are set off randomly before and after 5 Nov.Our dog was terrified. Big events are wonderful. We go to Ascot racecourse’s event and it’s amazing. Another local event has pretty fireworks with no bangs for children. Then the dc go home and there’s the adult/not scared dc louder fireworks later. These two stage evenings work well.

No one bothered with Halloween when I was a child. We just sang “For all the saints” on 1 Nov (All saints day) at school. We also loved harvest festival and advent. I think Easter is still quite big. I don’t get why trick or treat or scaring dc is fun. Give me hot soup, a banger in a bun and fireworks and I’m happy.

I have not seen this tendency. The two local big bon fires are packed every year and sell out all the meat, food and mulled wine

I live halloween as scot of Irish and Scottish ancestry it's my festival. I'd do find some of the US elements a bit tacky but I just make it how I like it and do all the old traditions.

I quite like fireworks as long as they are done by professionals, I don't think they should be on sale to the public. I used to love a proper bonfire as well but they never happen now. Our council has now stopped it's annual fireworks in favour of a halloween festival which is a shame, for a brief period we had both.

As a Catholic I suppose I should be glad to see the back of bonfire night but I did used to quite enjoy it.

Well the plotters were aggrieved Catholics. However we did end up with religious tolerance. We just like to celebrate failure of a plot in 1605!

I’ve always thought selling explosives to the public was madness anyway. I like Halloween and always decorate and say goodbye to the light.

There are hardly any displays left near me. Too much liability i guess.

Difficult to get to though if you're not local.

Sussex Bonfire season starts on the first Saturday in September and goes on to about 2nd week of November

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_Bonfire_Societies

I know this thread is two years old, but I'm in my fifties and my mum did brilliant Halloween parties all through my childhood. My great grannie (born in 1881) celebrated Halloween!
We used to make most of our decorations, and mum bought a few (ghost and witches made from thick tissue paper, and I remember her being made up when she found some glow in the dark spider webs in the 80s).
Trick or treating wasn't a 'thing' when I was growing up, but in our area started becoming popular after E.T came out!
There are three big bonfire displays near us (I'm not keen on fireworks) but the tickets sell out quickly.
Easter and Christmas are still celebrated, our local C of E church is always packed out at these services. No carol singers, but plenty of carol services, and well attended kids crib service on Christmas Eve.

I had the same conversation with my grandad yesterday, he said he never remembers celebrating Halloween as a child in the 40s and is surprised when he now sees so many people decorating their houses for Halloween.

Traditions haven't died out in my bit of Somerset.

@cockeyedoptimist

I haven't been to those ones but I have been to Northiam / Staplecross as my parents are local.

Remember being dropped off the first time for Staplecross outside the road closure zone and walking up a country lane in pitch darkness with no idea if I was heading in the right direction!

There are still one or two fireworks displays near me - but they don't seem to be bothering with a big bonfire anymore.

It has really changed and lost its charm. I hate the sound of them now, and when I was a child, we had a bonfire in the garden, my friend and I made a guy out of my Dad’s old clothes, and we had a smaller box of home fireworks that weren’t noisy, just pretty. Also jacket potatoes in the garden. This was the 1970s. Really special memories. Bigger displays are too noisy, crowded and no atmosphere, generally with a loud brash fair attached. When my daughter was small we use to take her to a nearby very traditional village display that was mostly a huge bonfire, had a guy on top and again a smaller display, less noisy. It was lovely, almost like a scene from Midsomer murders but without the murders! 😃

The huge display at Ascot is noisy! Bring headphones. BUT the display is outstanding.

So Hallowe'en is tacky but burning an effigy of a person is tasteful?

I do like fireworks, but why do they have to make them so unnecessarily noisy? One pillock brought his dog to the local firework display and unsurprisingly the dog was terrified. 🙄

Fireworks are hugely decreasing in popularity as

• They go on for longer: since more people have access to them, and they get sold for such a long time before bonfire night and NYE, it's practially 3 months of some person setting off fireworks randomly for 10mins at a time in the neighbourhood. It makes them far less special than they used to be.
• People are now more aware of the environmental impact. Particulate pollution and carbon dioxide emissions are huge.
• People are more conscious of the impact on their pets, more tired and grumpy and need more sleep. Okay, the latter might just be me as I age 😆
• Drones take over, are more reusable, less noisy and often more versatile.

People cannot afford to go out to the big events, often with little parking and shite public transport, no comfort for people to sit, so you stand in the rain for ages. Open fires in your backyard are frowned upon (and, I'm sure, forbidden if you're renting). Penny for the Guy has died a death because people essentially have to spend non-stop from October onwards - Halloween, Poppy appeal, Christmas with all the associated stuff. Suggested amounts for the poppy appeal shocked me this week; they went from £3 to £10. And burning effigies of political figures can now get you in a huge amount of trouble. Best not risk it.

All of those will be contributing factors.

Really noticed it this year. Barely any displays at all near me. It’s quite sad I think, I always loved Bonfire Night. Feels very nostalgic

People find money for Halloween tat. They really could afford to go to a firework display if they didn’t do this. Halloween was not even mentioned 50 years ago. Just a day of the year. We all loved firework night and enjoyed the bigger displays. I’m at Ascot racecourse tomorrow and it will be sold out. Always is. Big food court and you can stay inside and watch if you want.

I think it’s a reaction to all the covid trauma…Halloween has become a way of processing some of the emotions we’ve all suppressed. Very peculiar. But not unprecedented.