Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot…
Every British schoolchild is familiar with this rhyme, but I wonder how much of the rest of the world know of Guy Fawkes Night? It’s one of our more macabre festivals (aka Bonfire Night), where every fifth of November we set off fireworks, light bonfires and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, the man who attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament on that date in 1605. Other effigies sometimes get burnt too—unpopular politicians are often a target. I predict there’ll be a few Jimmy Savile Guys going up in flames this year too.
Coming so close as it does to Halloween, it’s hardly surprising that here in Britain people tend to make more of a big deal of Guy Fawkes Night. The fireworks don’t hurt, either. There’s a communal, festive air to Bonfire Night, and most towns and villages have a fireworks display. When I was a child we were blessed with a large garden, so we’d invite friends and relatives over. As my sisters and I made a Guy out of old clothes stuffed with newspaper, Dad would be preparing the bonfire, building up a huge pyre at the wild end of the garden. The flames were incredible, shooting up into the sky and sending up sparks of burning leaves with them. We’d wrap potatoes in foil and bake them in there, and once the fire had died down enough to see them properly, Dad would begin the fireworks display. It’s one of my fondest childhood memories.
By contrast, Halloween might as well not have existed. This was partly because my born again Christian parents considered it akin to Satanism (they’ve mellowed now, I’m relieved to say), and we never had any trick or treaters call because we lived right on the edge of town. These days I enjoy carving a pumpkin and dressing up, and I took Daisy on a very small trick or treating expedition last year, but my heart is still with Bonfire Night. It’s not that I have anything against Guy Fawkes, particularly (I don’t burn a Guy these days), but more because of those warm childhood memories, and the wonderful fragrance of a bonfire on a damp, chilly evening. Oh, all right. The fireworks too. I’m a sucker for a good fireworks display. This year we’ll be having a family fireworks display in Mum and Dad’s garden, although the bonfire has had to be downgraded to a brazier these days, as their garden isn’t as big in this house.
Brits, which festival do you prefer and why? And to the rest of the world, how do you celebrate Halloween? Or do you have a different festival altogether?
I’m from the generation before you and when I was a kid, Halloween barely got a look in. There was no trick or treating but sometimes there’d be a fancy dress party. The emphasis was always on scary and it would be full of witches and ghouls – no superman costumes in sight
I remember we’d play games like bobbing for apples – a particularly autumnal pursuit. Bonfire night was always the big occasion. For weeks before you’d see kids out with a guy, asking ‘Penny for the guy?’, raising money to buy fireworks, which back then, virtually anyone could buy and anyone could sell! Not a sight I’ve seen for years.
Hi Shelagh! I don’t think Halloween was celebrated all that much when I was a kid either. It’s definitely grown in popularity, though.
I used to love bobbing for apples until I did it with friends, and one came out of the water with his nose streaming. Never fancied it much after that!
I think we should be thankful fireworks are more difficult to buy these days. People letting them off for weeks either side of Bonfire Night gets on my nerves.
Definately! I don’t mind fireworks on the night, but listening to them for weeks beforehand as irritating. There are a lot less injuries now, as well, which can’t be a bad thing.
God, yes. I remember those hard-hitting safety ads on the tv, showing people who’d had their hands blown off and the like. Horrible.
We have Fastelavn where we used to put a black cat in a barrel and hit it till it broke (these days we use fruit & candy) kids dress up and go trick or treating like with Halloween, I can never remember, but I think it’s after Lent (Faste) could be right before though
And at Sankt Hans (where we turn and the days get shorter again) we have a big bonfire where we burn a witch (these days made of a wooden cross in old clothes to look human)
Halloween has snuck in this last decade though, I do not approve, it is not a tradition that means anything here, the shops just do it for money :/
Fastelavn sounds fascinating–like a pinata, then? Sankt Hans sounds pretty much like Bonfire Night to me–I’m guessing they must both have their roots in pre-Christian folk festivals.
I’m not sure how I feel about Halloween either. It’s been growing in popularity here too, but it doesn’t feel like a particularly British festival. I love the pumpkins, though. It’s the homemade parts that appeal to me, as always.
sorta, more like a small beer barrel, so the poor kitty got lots of banging around back then
I’ll have to look up the roots for Sankt Hans, but I’d say Christian as Sankt means Saint
We have Sankthans up here in Norway,too. But we don’t burn any witches. people light a bonfire at midnight to celebrate the turning of the sun and the coming of summer, and if the weather is nice people arrange for dancing outdoors. It ‘s said that if you’re able to collect seven types of wildflowers and then place them under your pillow, you’ll dream about your coming husband or wife this night.
Halloween has invaded us these last ten years. it’s not something we really celebrate but people with young kids are willing to go along. Last year Rebekka and her friend came home with two shopping bags full of candy. People don’t have any real idea yet of what to give or how much, so if you’re out early the winnings can be great!
We do have a really old and similar custom though. In the days between Christmas day and New Year the kids dress up in costumes (not scary ones) and go Julebukk in the neighborhood. They knock on doors and sing Christmas carols and are usually rewarded with candy. I must say I like this tradition a lot, it stems from the time when Norway was really, really poor, and the orphans and poor people had to go between the farms and beg for food and work. I’m so glad that turned into something positive!
I know Guy Fawkes Night through literature only, but I’ve always wanted to stuff a Guy and light him on fire! And fireworks is always a plus; here we have them only at New Year and then only arranged bu the city. We don’t want our old town to burn down again!
Ah, Sankthans sounds like our May Day or Beltane celebrations. I think most pagans around the world celebrated the vernal equinox, which the Christians then appropriated by sticking their own festival on top.
I like the sound of Julebukk, and earning your sweeties is a much nicer idea than threatening people with mischief.
I hadn’t considered the dangers of fireworks where the houses are built of wood. Our brick buildings aren’t in much danger, although we did have a rocket hit the house last year. Stupid antisocial neighbours with their tearaway kids. That’s one reason we moved.
LOL! The Christians did that a lot didn’t they? Which is why we celebrate Christmas in winter when Jesus was supposedly born in summer….They couldn’t stop us barbarians from going bananas at the Midwinter Blot!
Yeah, they just papered over our pagan celebrations with something Christian, but the pagan bits still leak through. I love that aspect of the festivals, as I can’t really get into the Christian side of it so much, being agnostic these days.
Me too. Agnostic I mean. Even though I had to look it up to see what it means. LOL.
I’m no too fond of Christmas as I work in retail. Selling Christmas stuff in October sort of takes away the joy. By the time Christmas comes around I’m thoroughly fed up! I wish Christmas could be more of a feast and less of an obligation. The presents we HAVE to buy? I don’t like anyone telling me what to do! So I try making inexpensive but heartfelt gifts to my friends and family. If I have time that is. I want to make a Christmas revolution: less gifts and more inclusion of people outside the family. Right now I feel like we’re celebrating ourselves and out greed more than anything else
I completely agree. I hate the commercialisation of Christmas. Homemade, or relatively inexpensive yet thoughtful gifts are the best option. Better yet, focus on spending time with people and celebrating friendships. I love that part of it all. The socialising is what makes Christmas great, for me. That and all the spices and brandy. My Christmas drinks cabinet is great fun
Guy Fawkes was always bigger in my house, because it also happens to be my brother’s birthday, so it was always a party. And as a little boy he must have thought the entire country was celebrating his birthday.
We used to carve turnip lanterns for Halloween. I don’t think I ever saw a pumpkin until I was a grown up! That was about it. I think we used to try going trick or treating, but probably didn’t quite understand it!
Ooh, I’ve carved turnips before, and a swede! They look really rustic, don’t they? Your brother must have had a fantastic birthday! There’s a big fireworks display on at Longleat on Daisy’s birthday this year, so we’re taking her to that after her party. She’s really excited
We used to have a bonfire and fireworks but the only guyto be seen was on the big bonty on the rec. The kids would take the guy around in a battered old push chair and knock on doors asking for ‘a penny for the guy’. There’s something elemental about a fire outside, and cooking potatoes in the embers. My gran would make treacle toffee and parkin – and only make them for bonfire night so they were a real treat!
Hallowe’en didn’t get much of a look-in but gran would make small sponge cakes and decorate them with silver balls – I was allowed to arrange the silver balls in the shape of crescent moons
I still like a good bonfire, watching the sparks flying up into the dark sky.
Christmas doesn’t do much for me but when I was at school, we’d all go out carol singing, with candles in jars. Singing in harmony was always wonderful and seeing people wrapped up warm, their breath wreathing up into the darkness, all singing together was magic.
Fires outside tap into something deep inside us, don’t they? I suppose it’s all those years we’ve evolved sitting around fires in the evenings. I swear, the telly is a substitute fire with its flickering brightness.
I keep saying I’m going to go carol singing but I never make it. Maybe this year. I’d love to give Daisy that experience–it does sound magical.
I always feel terribly un-British when I admit I used to love Halloween as a kid! The family up the road from us had a big house, and always held a party for all the local kids – everyone dressing up in spooky costumes, and with games like apple bobbing. And when they moved away, the family who moved in heard about the tradition and carried it on!
It actually didn’t register with me until I was much older that most of Britain thought Halloween was terribly American and didn’t really celebrate it at all.
By contrast, Bonfire Night was a bit of a low-key affair for us – we had fireworks in the back garden, and sometimes a Guy on a bonfire, but it wasn’t the social event Halloween was.
It’s not that that makes you un-British, hon–it’s the not drinking tea that does it!
The Halloween party sounds like great fun. I suppose as always, the fondest memories are the ones where the community gets together and has fun. For us it was Bonfire Night, but I can see why it would be the other way round for you. I just used to love getting up close to the bonfire and poking sticks in it. Kept me happy for hours. I’m still like that around real fires, which was why the boat was fantastic with its woodburner.
Well being an American, it’s all about Halloween for us. The kid gets dressed up and we take him trick or treating. Sometimes the hubs gets dressed up as well. One year they went as Yoda and Obi-Wan. This year the kid wants to go as Ben 10 and unfortunately the hubs will be out of town so I will be dressing up…as Ben’s cousin Gwen.
I’ve heard of Bonfire Night, but mostly because I have so many British friends LOL
Hehe–I’m sure Daisy will want me to dress up at Halloween too. I have the last few years. Oh, what am I saying? I do pretty much every year, anyway. Any excuse!
Yoda and Obi Wan sounds like an adorable father/son dressing up duo. I bet my hubby (the Star Wars fanatic) would love to do that with Daisy!
I’m definitely all for Bonfire Night. Like many, Halloween barely existed as anything but a date on the calender for me as a kid but Guy Fawkes night took days to prepare. Conning Dad out of some old clothes, the guy a freaky shadow in the darkness every time you looked out of your bedroom window to where it sat in the greenhouse, as it got progressively bigger while we stuffed it with paper every night after school.
The metal dustbin with holes drilled in the bottom which Dad used for the bonfire (which we helped build and covered with a tarp in case it rained).
Fireworks, small in comparison to the ones we have today, but, wow, the colours held captive in those small card recepticles.
And the food. Good solid fare made all the better for being eaten outside in the cold. Jacket potatoes, baked beans, sticky oven cooked sausages.
A cold nose, full belly and the faint scent of gunpowder and smoke. Good times.
Oh, you’ve captured it so beautifully there, Lillian! Yes, I remember that feeling of scorching my fingers on sausages and spuds while the cold nipped at my nose.
The fireworks weren’t much back then, but I’m amazed by what you can get for garden displays now. I bought an online selection last year, and we had a display to rival the professional ones. Okay, it wasn’t as big and the rockets were disappointing, but the catherine wheels, fountains and shot cakes were spectacular!
We have Hop Tu Naa (pronounced hop chew nay) which is the old new year celebration. We’d dress up as a witch or ghost and carve turnips (the big heavy ones that seem tobe called swedes now) – I remember my dad with a hand dsrill at them coz they were so hard! then we’d carve patterns out of the skin so a candle light would shine through and go round singing Jinnie the Witch. We’d be gone hours (late 60′s/earlu 70′s so no parents with us), knocking on doors for sweets/money – trick or treat was never in our minds as a concept, that came later as american tv shows came more prevalent.
on bonfire night, we have Standard Box A (very small!). in early 80′s there’d always be a huge bonfire on Douglas beach, people would have put their rubbish on for weeks, then anyone would light their own fireworks – in hind sight quite dangerous and now stopped, but as a young teen, exciting!
So as a kid, hop tu naa was the thing but as am adult I do love a good bonny!!
Ooh, fascinating. I’d never heard of this so had to go and find out more. Sounds like it could be the original Halloween, as it predates the more modern festival.
Huge bonfires are the best, aren’t they? Ones you have to stand right back from because they’re so damn hot. I’ve never been to one on a beach before. I bet that was amazing
I remember a year when I was out sailing in a smallish sailboat on Sankt Hans, we were lying still for the night right between Jylland and Fyn, so bonfires on the beaches on both sides for as far as we could see, that was magical
That sounds absolutely beautiful