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.

My memories too

In the "good old days" people didn't wear seatbelts, drove home from the pub after a few pints, smoked while holding a baby... and while most of ours were "fine" some weren't and lessons were learnt

You don't need to endanger like to have fun.

(I've been a feeder at the last few village bonfires... let's put it this way, we are in boots, trousers, tshirts and gloves due to the heat... so yes the children are kept well back!)

I remember Chinese New Year in China ages ago, where you could buy whatever fireworks you wanted and set them off in the street while holding them. Happy days.

I really love a proper bonfire night, too, OP. We didn't do them in gardens (this was 90s) but the local primary had a big bonfire on the field, we brought jacket potatoes in our pockets. You could get near and throw more on, I loved it. Few fireworks set off by the school caretaker (which no school has anymore I suppose) and I like them, now and then, but the real magic was the bonfire and the sparklers. The sparks, the crackle.
Bonfire night was my favourite celebration of the year but almost all of the community events are gone now. I grumbled when we had to start paying for them but now they don't even exist at all! I don't know what I'm going to do this year. There are a few displays a bit of a drive away but no accompanying bonfires. Last year I had a real job to get any sparklers, hardly anywhere was selling them. So might be bigger to light the chiminea at home and watch other people's mad attempt to do home fireworks.

Ours is in a school playing field. Staffed by the sixth formers plus some teachers & parents. Hot dogs/burgers/hog roast done by volunteers. Stalls by anyone paying £25 - mostly parents, relatives or enterprising year 11s. Huge bonfire that is checked for hedgehogs a few hours beforehand. A homemade guy. Local band.

No sparklers though.

But what is stopping you from organising your own non-safe bonfire activities. You seem to be simultaneously complaining that nobody organises things to your taste and not getting off your backside and organising your own. The ones you remember fondly didn't just happen!

Bonfire night was nostalgic for a lot of us, me included. My dad would always take up to a large local display, we got toffee apples and candy floss and hot chocolate if you were lucky. There was always a Guy and dad found it an interesting story.

Some people on our estate do fireworks in their gardens but many gardens back onto others and you end up with lots of fireworks paraphernalia in your garden. If it was just the one day then fair enough, I'm not a kill joy but unfortunately around here it isn't. We have had fireworks set off for the last 3 weeks.

Firefighters will and have told you how busy a night it is for them and how the hooliganism has got much worse. I worked last bonfire night and there were kids no older than 10 throwing fireworks across the street. Locals were like its just kids being kids and a rite of passage but if you turn a blind eye to antisocial behaviour at this age what on earth do you think happens as they get older? Parents nowhere to be seen of course.

I think there should only be organised displays, safety being the number one reason. But like everything else like going to see Santa etc, it’s all become an ‘experience’. And a bloody expensive one at that. We used to go to our schools display every year as money went back into the school, but they’ve stopped doing it. So locally the only choices are the big organised displays which cost a bomb for a family of five. I think if sales of fireworks weren’t as restricted now, a lot of people would have gone back to doing their own ones like you described op. I just would not want to witness the burns and injuries that would inevitably happen!

@Meadowfinch why no sparklers? Can they be dangerous? I have a packet at home that we’ve had for years but never used because I’m worried the kids will burn their hands…

Yes very dangerous.
They are basically burning metal rods, the sparks from them can and do melt synthetic gloves to your hands if a spark lands on them the same with clothing of the person using them and those around, the lit end can set fire to anything/anyone they touch even after they have gone out.

What a totally peculiar,unfounded post and how very unkind of you.

I can't imagine why you think I would make this up.

It's a true story and I'm sure many people who lived through that era will remember similar parties.

But surprisingly, hardly anyone has been set on fire by a sparkler!

Seriously enjoy what's left of Bonfire Night whilst it's still going.

In ten years time it will probably be banned anyway on grounds of pollution, distressing to pets, a sectarian event, fireworks being banned and overall health & safety.

Hmm. Those old fashioned bonfire nights you are misty eyed about are brilliant for guests but require significant voluntary effort and expense from the hosts - largely women. Women just aren’t prepared to do all that any more especially now most work full time.

As a child families with farms would host - it was incredible but looking back a lot of effort. Also due to logistics not every family was invited we always were but my friend with quiet unsociable parents never was which felt abit mean.

What’s stopping you from having your own bonfire and fireworks in your garden though? It’s not compulsory to go to a big display. You can still buy fireworks and invite your friends over for a party, if that’s important to you.

I’m almost 50 and my home town’s had a big organised display since the 1960s; they’re not a new thing.

I remember it a bit differently

We always went to an organised display but back then it would be your local cricket or rugby club. It was one of the few events my bio dad actually participated in. We go see the big bonfire being lit, watch the fireworks, I'd buy a cheap shitty glow stick that accordig to school rumours would last forever of you put it in the fridge after (??!), probably play on a few of the stalls like hook a duck or my dad would have a go at the darts game to win me a prize and I'd probably have a toffee apple or some candy floss.

Tbh those are the few good memories I have of our time.

Though I do know what you mean about how it's been one kre commercialised. The one in my current city is a huge ticketed affair. Very expensive food and stalls. Last year's x factor rejects for entertainment etc.

As it happens now I'm much older I actually kind of hate fireworks! It's more the fact that it isn't just one night but basically October -january! And they are so much louder! Tbh my opinions on them changed massively when I saw how badly it affected my bfs late dog, poor soul was terrified and hated the damn things, and I imagine for people with PTSD etc it can also be equally horrific.

Tbh now they can do all kinds of displays with drones and stuff I don't feel we need actual fireworks, or if we do it should strictly ONLY be organised displays. Also when you really think about how much they cost it's the equivalent of literally lighting money on fire 😳

You'd be amazed at how many children were burned quite badly by them over the years.
When I was a kid (back in the stoneage) we had public service videos shown at school about them and drumming into us to always use them when waring real wool gloves/mittens and not to touch the burning end even after it went out and to always put them into a bucket of water when they went out

@OneBadKitty But surprisingly, hardly anyone has been set on fire by a sparkler!

Not ‘set on fire’ but there were always burns due to mishandling of them. You were just lucky enough not to experience it in whatever group you were with, but it did happen to many children. Not all adults were as sensible as the adults with you seemed to be, and seemed to just let young children have them with little to no supervision.

This time of year is an absolute nightmare for the emergency services, I’m sure they’d be pleased if private fireworks were banned all together! The fire brigade were out on our street at the weekend because someone had started a bonfire in their back garden and it had blown into the shed and set it alight and before long the fences were also up… They couldn’t escape their garden so the fire crew had to get them out via the roof. Fucking insanity.

I have no idea why people mess with them. I’d feel much safer in the knowledge trained experts were setting the fireworks off and to be honest, I don’t like bonfires at all. Not just the danger factor but they make your clothes stink.

Yes everything is about getting money from puinters

Born in the 1970s and only ever went to organised events. Fireworks at home are not safe and also nowhere near as impressive as the ones at organised displays.

I take your point but someone just asked me to go to the free local bonfire and I had memories of being cold and miserable as a child at bonfire nights.

Fairly sure it’s been downgraded, partly through H&S but also commercially motivated - apart from fireworks you can’t sell
much tat around bonfire night - whereas Halloween is tat central!! Like others I remember a mix, a few sparklers and a small box at home, along with hot dogs and toffee apples and big organised displays too -

Fairly sure it’s been downgraded, partly through H&S but also commercially motivated - apart from fireworks you can’t sell
much tat around bonfire night - whereas Halloween is tat central!! Like others I remember a mix, a few sparklers and a small box at home, along with hot dogs and toffee apples and big organised displays too -

So don’t go. Get together with some friends and do it your way. The end.