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 disagree entirely.

When I was a child in the 80% we always went to an organised event. So did most people I knew.

Back garden events have always been dangerous and I think they should be banned.

The full "bonfire prayer" as used by the Sussex bonfire societies is really a bit grisly and sectarian, but when you hear 1,000+ people chanting it in unison and stamping in time, it's quite something:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes 'twas his intent
To blow up the King and the Parliament
Three score barrels of powder below
Poor old England to overthrow

By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holler boys, holler boys, ring bells ring
Holler boys, holler boys, God Save the King!

A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o'cheese to choke him
A pint of beer to rinse it down
A faggot of sticks to burn him

Burn him in a tub of tar
Burn him like a blazing star
Burn his body from his head
Then we'll say old Pope is dead

Hip Hip Hoorah!
Hip Hip Hoorah!
Hip Hip Hoorah!

That is exactly how I remember Bonfire Night, OP. The bonfire is the most important element in my opinion. It is very primal but an outdoor fire draws people together at this time of year.

Our neighbours would always have a bonfire in their garden and it was exactly as you described. The sight of the bonfire and smell of the fireworks, sparklers and sausages are such a lovely memories. Family, friends and community. Games like apple dipping and toffee apples!

Later on, I remember our school having a bonfire night one year and being bought a jacket potato to eat outside which was not something I had experienced until then.

I think it really was the big bonfire that made is so special. Our local town has a fire but it is cordoned off so can only be viewed from far away! You do not get the experience of standing round it and looking at the mesmerising flames.

We have indeed lost touch with community in this way and in other ways.

As a complete fun sponge, I would not let fireworks be sold to the general public for backyard use

As a child I adored bonfire night - we always had a bonfire and fireworks in the back garden - mind you we did have a big garden and my DF often made bonfires to burn garden waste anyway.

IMO it’s sad that it’s been so much eclipsed by Halloween, which I’m sure is almost wholly down to the vast amounts of black and orange tat in the shops, plus of course farmers cashing in with pumpkins - not that I blame them for that.

There was no Halloween tat when I was a child, and the only merchandise for 5th November was fireworks and sparklers.

I agree that most things are shitter nowadays than they used to be. I can think of a handful of things that are better but mostly life is shitter.

YABtotallyU about bonfire night though. Of all the things that you could have chosen in life that are an example of life being shitter you chose organised fireworks displays, I mean WTAF? Are you on meth? 😅

The more organised displays and less public sales of fireworks, the better!

If anyone dare says to me they are against animal cruelty (hunting, shooting etc) yet they enjoy and support this constant bombardment of unlimited decimal mortar bomb fireworks for weeks on end, I swear, I won't be held responsible for my actions!!!

We had the fireworks in the garden in the 60s and early 70s. The big difference was that everyone around us did the same but it was ONE night.

It didn't matter whether it was Tuesday or Sunday, you had your fireworks on November 5th. We had rabbits and guinea pigs so we would bring their hutches indoors on the 5th and they’d go back outside on the 6th.

We started to go to organised displays in the late 70s and that was always the nearest Saturday. Now you get bangs every night from October to January and it's just too much. (Never lived anywhere that celebrated Diwali).

I was a very intelligent 5 year old. We went to a family bonfire and party, 1979 or 1980.

Do not pick the sparkler up again!

Well I did.

Local pubs etc... Last one I went to was daughter in a buggy, so 15 years ago, a 14 year old son. A local man, ex army, current paramedic set off the firework... It went mental hitting the fence spinning round the garden.
I'm still ashamed to say that I legged it out with baby, then thought... Son!!
I ran back in, he was fine, thought it w as all cool.

So if we go now, we go to the Council organised which is free. We've paid before but free ones are better.

It's me on my own these days. Kids grew up.

Well just throw the party. We have a party every year, fireworks in the garden, barbecue, roasting marshmallows. It's great fun.

No the literal point of Bonfire Night is to commemorate the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the conspirators' plan to murder the King and blow up the HoP.

Also, if you had ever been involved in organising a community event, you would be only too well aware of the constraints that the volunteers who work hard to organise these events have to work to. Insurance requirements, Health & Safety Legislation and Food Safety/Environmental Hygiene etc are the culprits. Cash on the night is a huge security risk nowadays which is another reason for ticket only events.

I always quite like the sound of Guy Fawkes 😂

Except of course they’d be servants etc in the Houses of Parliament who hadn’t done anything wrong, so clearly not good to blow them all up, but he sounds very brave!

It isn't the way Bonfire Night is celebrated these days that saddens me. A) I was born in the 60s and my childhood bonfire nights always involved a big town bonfire and firework display, although I do think there were more private bonfires as you describe too. B) I remember all you used to hear about on Blue Peter and the news around that time were horror stories of children being burnt and mutilated by misusing fireworks. It's a good thing if lack of garden celebrations has lowered the injury rate.

What saddens me is how Halloween seems to have replaced Bonfire Night in our culture. I know lots of people are going to say Halloween is older than Bonfire Night and has always been celebrated but it really wasn't much of a thing in my childhood whereas Bonfire Night was massive. I don't think children now would think that way.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

'I always quite like the sound of Guy Fawkes 😂'

In fact (this line has just reminded me) that we actually used to call it 'Guy Fawkes Night' when I was a child (1970's).

And it was very much more about the bonfire than the fireworks. I do miss the bonfires. Love the smell of them in Autumn and Winter.

I’m glad that it’s starting to really shift away from people buying their own fireworks and having their own fires, much much safer! Even as a little girl in the 90s I still remember the horror stories on the news following the 5th…

Honestly don’t think fireworks should be available to the public, they are dangerous.

We always went to organised bonfires in the 80s and 90s. Firefighters used to come to our primary school and scare us all with tales of homemade fireworks so I've never been interested in trying to do my own display! We do always have sparklers at home though and sausages, after attending a main display.

There’s a massive bonfire in our town because they have the space to do so and it is away from other homes. It’s a whole event with plenty of people from neighbouring towns with the addition of tourists who are visiting from the nearby tourist attraction less than 10 minutes away.

For our area, it is Halloween festivities and then Bonfire Night. With it being half-term next week, kids are looking forward to it.

I still don’t get the moaning about Halloween and tat when you could use them next year like people do for the Christmas tat. Plenty of Christmas tat in shops for months on end starting at the end of Summer.

Our village, and surrounding villages, all do bonfires courtesy of Scouts, Cricket Club, Working Men’s Club etc.

Food is provided by the organisers - jackets, chilli etc

Advanced sales allow the organisers to have an idea of numbers and bank roll the expenses. Venues are likely to have insurance limits on the size of public meetings.

We’ll just do it how you want to do it then? Don’t buy tickets to an event if you don’t want to.

we’re going to a friends back garden who has a view of a display. We will probably light a fire and have sparklers. There will be hotdogs. Life can be whatever you want it to be. Don’t dispare

I grew up in the 90s and there's not much change where I live. I used to attend free community events some years and other years would be in family gardens. There's still free community events in my town now, some years I go to them, some years in the garden with family. I do prefer the community events, much better fireworks displays than I've seen in a garden.

I thought the point of bonfire night was celebrating the gory execution of a dude who tried to blow up parliament 400 odd years ago?

I personally didn’t like it much as a kid when we went to big displays in the local park (bonfire set up a decent distance away from people for safety), and I like it even less as an adult- cold, wet and stressful as hell trying to keep the kids close by in the dark while surrounded by thousands of other people. No thank you. Luckily my kids couldn’t give less of a shit about it. So win win.

Have you ever put on one of these events or even volunteered. I have through our PTA . But after 5 years we have stopped putting on fireworks events because we couldn't get volunteers and I was doing it almost single-handedly.

We had commercial stalls cos no-one wanted to manage a BBQ even arranging this is tricky
Completing 50 page event plan for the local council as a volunteer.
Getting shed loads of personal harassment from people who didn't want firework displays.
I was raking wood chippings at 6am before an event two years ago with my 8 and 10 year old and helping tow a stuck van off the school field at 11pm that evening.
All for zero salary just trying to raise money for the school and put on a nice affordable event for the local community .
When I said we weren't doing it anymore loads of people said what a lovely event it was but still no one offered to help.
The reason everything is commercial is because when you try and do community events - you find the community just wants to attend but doesn't went to help out.

I used to go to organised bonfire night things in the 80s. Ought to be safer than people messing about in their gardens.

I don't do any of it anymore, I have to support my dog in not being scared to death.

That's a good point and sounds lovely.

I would do this but I worry about upsetting neighbours with a bonfire (I last had one about 3 years ago). As soon as anyone starts one in my area, people are moaning all over Facebook about it. It might be what puts a lot of people off having one nowadays.

Shame. I love the smell of a bonfire personally!

Personally I think that properly arranged fireworks displays that cater to hundreds of people are a huge improvement on a five-quid box of Standard in the back garden. For a small cost you can see thousands of pounds' worth of fireworks on a grand professional scale.

Actually, reading it again, I disagree with every single point you've made.

Not, of course, that there's anything stopping you having fireworks in your back garden. Attendance at the community event isn't obligatory,

Halloween was always the bigger celebration in Scotland but we had turnip lanterns rather than pumpkins