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 do miss sparklers but tbh an organised display is easier, significantly cheaper and much better than we could do.

I love fireworks, not fussed about a bonfire.

Pay £8, turn up, buy some overpriced food after waiting in the queue for 30mins , go oooh and aaaahhh for 40mins then go home happy.

It is a shame they’re being organised that way. I think it’s nice when local schools host them so all the DCs see their friends and it’s a community thing that raises money for the school.

I wouldn’t mind people having fireworks in their gardens if they stuck to actual bonfire night but people set them off all week.

Mums generally didn't work then, so had time to prepare for a party easily, and got the housework done during the day, people probably smoked everywhere during such parties, if you drove to friend's house for the bonfire party, car seats weren't used (or were nowhere near as safe as today's, if they were used at all), seatbelts were rarely worn.
Never saw any guys made for the bonfire in my lifetime, even when I was living in England. Read that people used to have competitions to make different guys-that's something from the past that would be interesting to bring back, maybe for afterschool clubs/families who have time.

I also think though that climate change has impacted the experience.

Even 10 years ago, we'd wrap my daughter up because it was cold and that was part of the fun and drama. Last year I dont think I even wore gloves because we didnt need to.

It's sad and scary.

Agree, OP, when I was a kid our street used to have a communal bonfire on the park opposite, we'd all spend weeks adding stuff to the bonfire, then all bring our own fireworks and each family brought some food to share. This was repeated all across town, each neighbourhood having its own event. It was great.
Don't forget about all the people moaning about the noise now, can't have fireworks upsetting their precious dogs, so let's ruin the experience and make it completely silent. Amazed health and safety hasn't done away with bonfire night altogether.

But the Facebook groups go apeshit about people having fireworks in their gardens ‘ooo they’re so loud, they should be banned, my dog is terrified, fireworks should be restricted to organised events only’.

I don’t mind an organised event to be honest, our garden is a bit shallow (?!) (it’s wide but not deep) for fireworks.

I agree that I like to be closer to the bonfire than health and safety legislation permits and I do miss the sparklers.

Our town display is run by the rugby club with parents running the hot dog stand and a big bonfire that blows dangerous sparky bits all over you and you can get close to. I think it’s good most fireworks are at proper displays now though and not in small gardens

Fireworks started where i am in early October and will be an almost nightly event until around 3 January. I feel so sorry for animals and small children. Back in the days when we had fireworks for Diwali, 5 Nov and New Year's Eve at least you knew it was just for those few evenings , now it seems to be every night.

So if a kid gets burned then its ok because "thats the whole point of Bonfire night"? Ok

However, you are wrong.

You are so wrong I have contact embarassment. If you did just one google about why we have Bonfire night you would find out that actually the whole point was to tell Catholics to behave because this is what happens when you dont.

You can buy a pack of sparklers and do them with your kids before you go or when you get back

When I was a kid we would all gather at our neighbour’s garden to do the fireworks together. One year our neighbour set fire to his shed, the next year the fence went. Great memories actually- it was really funny (for us kids anyway).

But yeah, I’m going to the community event. My narrow garden is lined with trees and I don’t fancy my chances!

Well I live in Lewes ( look it up)and we do bonfire all year round and yes it gets harder each year

I was born in 1982. Every year we all congregated at my grandparent’s house, walked to the local “dip” and watched the fireworks at an organised display… the same display my mum and dad went to with their parents through their childhood in the 1960s/70s. We now do similar with my parents (different event as we live in a different part of the country). Your memories are very different to mine. It was about family and still is.

Also, our fireworks nights were nothing like the one OP described. We'd have to stay inside looking through the kitchen window (because it wasnt safe to watch outside) for my Grandad to let off maybe 5 fireworks (because they are a waste of money and he's not buying anymore). He did make the "displays" last ages though because he'd insist on waiting 15mins between each firework to make sure it's safe to go back.

In hindsight as an adult it's very clear he was scared of them. I hope he knew how much we liked them.

I've never even seen a guy!

Although we celebrate the prevention of an association attempt of King James 1st we forget about the ensuing prescription of Catholics. Maybe it is time to not necessarily celebrate one side of a centuries old struggle between two major branches of Christianity?

If it is a firework display is what it is now then that's fair enough as November 5th was really one for the history buffs.

I miss taking the Guy in a wheelbarrow around asking for pennies. Also the food- jackets, chilli. The garden bonfire parties were great fun but fireworks have always caused havoc. We all remember Catherine wheels flying off and dads lighting them fag in mouth, going back when they fizzle out. My main gripe now is they’re so bloody loud.

assisnation

Same here! Tomato soup, rockets in milk bottles, sparklers (with us wearing gloves -v early H&S!) and a gorgeous feeling of an event which we had looked forward to for weeks. Probably 1974.

It' not the same really. She's 15 now so Im just trying to enjoy going with her while she is still willing!

@Arrrrrrragghhh totally agree. BFN is a soulless event these days

You lost me at the injuries, OP.

Not when your in the firing line literally... its stil the busiest night of the year for us

We had fireworks in the back garden in the 50s (as did everyone else I knew) and it probably was the case before that but I can't vouch for that.

We didn't really do bonfire night like that when I was a kid- few odd years with fireworks in garden not many as got expensive and odd organised display mostly nothing.

Our kids did one backyard one with friends - one massive one with DH then work eldest hated that at her then age - then we moved near a roundtable organised one. You could just turn up - bonfire some distance away - rides, food stalls and yes nosparklers more LEDs - kids and IL who came over and us all loved it.

Moved away tried three here and two similar but greater distance and local one where there was no bonfire at all and tieckst pre bought - we really miss the walakable organised display.

Now we do firepit in garden - cooked bit of food on it - and do sparklers and few fountain fireworks one - we've done it since we had the cats. Works for us.

I don't think guys have been a big thing ever in my life and I was kid in 80s and 90s.

Hmmm. No. Maybe you should get some antihistamine cream or something because your contact embarrassment will also become real embarrassment.

Bonfire night is actually a celebration. Its to celebrate James I surviving. James was a fan of bonfires and basically any excuse for a party. So the focus was on celebration not warning.

The "warning" was Guy Fawkes torture and then being hung, drawn and quartered but of course he purposed jumped on the gallows so break his neck so didnt have to endure the other punishments. His head on a spike on the city walls was the way James told Catholics to behave themselves.