Remember, Remember, The 5th Of November ...














When I was kid, Bonfire Night / Guy Fawkes Night (Nov 5th) was biggest day after Xmas in England.
For those not familier with the history Guy Fawkes Night, here's a couple of links for you to read.

• Guy Fawkes (wikipedia)
• The Gunpowder Plot (BBC)
• The Celebration Today (BBC)

Around Our Way ...

For me Bonfire night was all about a few things... collecting wood, building and guarding a bonfire, lighting the fire, fireworks (air bombs, bangers, rockets), black peas, parkin (a cake), treacle toffee, fire blackened potatoes, making a Guy and carting it around the area collecting money by singing songs like "Bonfire Night, Stars Are Bright" , "Build A Bonfire..", "Remember, Remember The 5th Of November", LOL!!

For the North Americans, you might be asking - "What is this madness?". Well here's my story...

For Guy Fawkes Night, locally known as 'Bommy Night', we celebrate the capture of the Guy Fawkes by building huge bonfires, create and place an effigee (a guy) of Guy Fawkes at the top of the Bonfire and burn the whole thing to the ground. Whilst the Bonfire is burning, everyone sets off fireworks, eats traditional foods (parkin, black peas, treacle toffee) and prays their house doesn't go up in smoke.

Bulding A Bonfire And Getting All Territorial...

There was tons of kids in my neighbourhood. We all used to hang out in huge gangs, and spend all our time together. When it came around to Bonfire Night, we were always on school break, so there was many of us around to build a huge bonfire.

Everyone went around the old dumps (known as 'spare land' (LOL!)), looking for wood to construct our Bonfire. It was typically rainy weather in November so it was messy cold work. We'd drag the wood to the bonfire site and start assembling. During the days we'd have a small fire going to keep us warm, and at night we'd all hang out around the forming Bonfire.

As the Bonfire took shape, there was always the threat of other gangs from nearby areas coming around to set the whole thing alight before the big night. This was know as 'Bommy Raiding'. For this reason, the back end of the week the group split into two. One group collected more wood, the other standing guard around the bonfire. HAHAHA

Making Him, Then Burning Him...

In between building the bonfire, we'd make an effigee of Guy Fawkes. Ours were usually constructed from our old clothes, stuffed with paper to form the arms/legs, balloons for torso, paper mache head and wool for hair. Once made, we'd stick him in an old pram and wheel him around the area on a mission filled with tradition.... First port of call was usually the shops up the road. We'd stand out side and say "Penny For The Guy" and some friendly local folk would usually hand a few pennys our way (worth something at the time!), which we'd save for fireworks. At night we'd give him a tour of the local houses, knock on the doors and would either again ask "Penny For The Guy", or sing a song in hopes for something in the 10p ballpark :). "Build A Bonfire... Build A Bonfire...", "Remember, Remember The 5th of November..."

The Big Night Arrives ...

After around a week of preparation the big night would roll around. If somebody hadn't "raided your bommy" we would usually have a big fire to start. First up, someone would climb the wood (youch!), and place the Guy as near the top as possible. Come 7pm, we'd light the fire and the festivities would start...

The wood burned, and as the tradition of burning Guy Fawkes started outcame the fireworks - sparklers, air bombs, bangers, volcanos, catherine wheels, Roman cangles and rockets. We'd oooh and ahhh at the fireworks, dodge the psychos throwing bangers and eat tooo much food. Everyone would stick around till the last embers died, or a shout from our parents to come in for the night.

Ahh, happy days.