Bonfire Night - sums up why life is worse now.

[Arrrrrrragghhh]

Clearly shows how we have lost touch of real life experiences in favour of some weird commercialised version.

Bonfire night always was finding a house/ family/ venue with enough space for a bonfire on November 5th. Point of the bonfire was to be close enough to keep warm on a cold November night. Sounds, sights and smells of a big wood fire
People would bring fireworks. Everyone knew the name and type of the firework involved. Always the element of danger. Sparklers were a must. Numerous safety films at school and on TV so few injuries but enough to make you be respectful.
You would enjoy some specific bonfire foods - potatoes cooked in thd fire, posh black toffee, cheap hot dogs.

Gradually morphed into local organised events.Ok not so many people have big/any gardens. Still community led volunteering to help build or man a stall etc.

Now my local village is a ticket only event - no sales on the day. The day is a Saturday not the 5th. Food is commercial sellers from out of town and the same ones at every fair or event throughout thd year. No one allowed near the fire. Firework is a showy display away from the bonfire
. LED lights for kids as sparklers discouraged. Basically it’s a pointless organised fireworks show rather than a specific festival for November 5th.

I've only been to organised displays and I'm 50.
No one in my family ever had fireworks in their garden. It's always been risky.

I'm 54 and have only ever been to organised displays. They've always been great. Fireworks are fireworks. Getting a bunch of people to bring their own to a garden doesn't make them better. Far greater risk of injury and a less impressive display? No thanks.

I’ve never been to someone’s house for an actual bonfire. My dad did fireworks and usually with some incident that proved why it was a bad idea for them to be sold to the public. We also used to always go to the local display and stand in awe or find a cheeky place to watch it for free so no change for me. That was 80s and 90s so…

I must say I adore the magic of firework night. Our family together and happy and after Covid any event where everyone is allowed in mass groups I feel a bit soppy. Unfortunately DC no longer want to come with us so it’s lost its spark. Pun intended.

No it isn't. Watching the fireworks is the point. What a weird attitude.

Mine was like yours, it was great. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of posts saying dangerous, think of the pets, should be banned, only organised shows etc.

I agree everything is sanitised now, people watch things through their phones. People don’t seem to actually live anymore.

Totally my experience too OP!

Bonfire night in the 1970s/80s was all about family, neighbours and friends getting together in someone's garden. We all knew the story of Guy Fawkes and exactly what it was about. We had pie and peas and homemade toffee and small fireworks kept in an old quality street tin. All the kids were allowed to help with the fire and poke it with sticks. There were small organised bonfires in the local pub carpark or similar if you didn't want your own fire.

Schools and parents don't have time to teach stuff like this any more and it's all commercialised. Fireworks all sound like bombs these days and they never seem to be limited to bonfire night any more. Even the Diwali celebrations sounded like warfare last night. Fireworks have lost their magic for me now as they are let off at every opportunity near me- weddings every weekend, Eid tiwce a year, Diwali, New Years Eve, and at least every night for a fornight for Bonfire night.

I agree OP. I have such fond memories of bonfire night as a child. The excitement of having a bath before changing into warm clothes to go out. Going out to the guy we had made in the garden with my grandad and having a bonfire with some garden fireworks. Our local pub putting on a display with a massive fire - anyone could get close to it. Catherine wheels and toffee apples.

I’m all for a bonfire party but I think fireworks should be banned unless at an official event - they cause so many problems

I'm 58 and only went to a neighbours garden once, tbh I found it a bit disappointing, I preferred the organised ones at my dad's work.
My uncle was badly burned as a child when I firework went up his trouser leg. My dad who was older was, I think, a bit traumatised by it and was always very wary around fireworks which he passed on to us kids.

I haven't been to a bonfire night for a few years but think children should be allowed sparklers, led lights don't cut it.

As a child we always made a Guy from old clothes stuffed with newspaper, who would sit outside our house and we would get a few pennies for him. Though he did end up on our bonfire.

This seems to have completely fizzled out. We also did apple bobbing and made toffee apples. We tend to just watch other people's fireworks- they are so expensive I dont understand how everyone affords them - but thanks we enjoy them!

I loved bonfire night as a child in the 70's.

The whole street would gather on the piece of waste land behind the houses and light the fire. The guy would go on top having previously been sat in an old push chair outside the local shops for a around a week while us kids took it in turns to asked for "a penny for the guy" (money to pay for the fireworks)

There would be baked potatoes hot dogs and treacle toffee. Sometimes there were toffee apples.

Each family donated a small box of fireworks. They were very low key compared to the ones we have today.

It was always freezing cold - much colder than November ever is now.

I have such lovely memories of those evenings.

The next day you could still see and smell the smoke from all of the different bonfires.

I can't remember when all of this stopped but I was around 16 when I last went to an evening like this so that would have been 1986.

My kids have never experienced anything like this - the nearest they got to it was the rugby club fireworks display. No bonfire but a hot dog each.

Blue Peter used to show you how you must keep your fireworks in a biscuit tin.

Bonfires. Jacket potatoes. No problem.
But fireworks should be banned from public sale, both because their dangerous and because they are detrimental to wildlife and pets.

How is being close to danger the literal point of Bonfire Night? The literal point of it is celebrating the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot and burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes.

I’ve never understood why we celebrate a failed terrorist attack.

The safety videos said :
keep them in a tin out of the house if possible-ours were slung on top of the fridge.
Use a torch to read them-nah my dad used his lighter.
Light them using the taper only-my dad would mostly use his lit fag.
Don’t return to a dud firework- he’d go and kick it aside.
He worked in safety!

Because it failed!

I don’t know of any family who had a personal bonfire.
We had the local chavs/assholes/
whatever scavenging and building a bonfire on waste ground for around a month before hand and on bonfire night about 2 dozen losers would congregate around it to drink and throw various inflammable objects in.
a few people had sparklers in the back garden, maybe some little fireworks if lucky.
Some kids would throw bangers through letter boxes or at other kids.
Fast forward 3/4 decades and any bugger can buy explosives at their local supermarket and set them off whenever they like or save them for their own ‘important’ occasion. Who cares about the wild and domestic animals terrorised by the noise?
I hate bonfire night, I always have. It’s a ridiculous ‘celebration’ and allowing any member of the public to buy fireworks is just wrong.
Organised displays are the only thing that should be allowed if we continue to celebrate Guy Fawkes.

Dunno about the organised/family party stuff - I remember going to Rotary Club fireworks in the 80s which were great. But the main problem I have with modern bonfire night is it's never cold enough. Needs to be freezing so you can wrap up in hats and scarves and of course gloves for sparklers. Nowadays always seems mild and I over heat.

Also, it was better, imo, when Bonfire Night was the main pre-christmas celebration. Now Halloween is much bigger and bonfire night (which is nearer my birthday and therefore preferable overall) gets overshadowed

If you like a bit of danger in bonfire night go to Lewes. You won’t be disappointed. And communal bonfire night celebration long predate having your own bonfire night with rubbish fireworks in your back garden, which I think only really started in the 70s.

So we celebrate it by blowing stuff up, setting fires and putting people and animals in danger. That’s logical.

My neighbours back gate and my mums wooden washing line prop got stolen one year just before bonfire night.

You're the mum now its for you to make these experiences for your kids do you think they just happened when you was a child or do you think its because your parents made it happen

I’m only saying why we celebrate it. We celebrate the foiled attempt.

At the last bonfire night I went to in someone’s garden a firework shot into an adult’s face. I won’t go to another one, they are too dangerous.