Bonfires, Bollards, Bankers, and Bangers!

Once again I have let my blogging slide. Many apologies to the 3 people who read my blog, I'm back! :D

And, as promised in the last post, here is a blog entry about Bonfire Night (or Guy Fawkes or Fireworks Night as it is also known).

Bonfire Night is a big deal in my home county. There's a whole lot of history behind it, and various assertions and speculations as to why this particular region holds the celebration of the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in such high esteem. I won't expound all those different theories here, but I can recommend a good book.

The town of Lewes has the biggest (and frankly best) bonfire celebrations in the whole country. There are seven different Bonfire societies, six of which hold their firework display on 5th November. The evening starts with big street processions of all these societies, and supporting societies from the nearby villages and towns. Most of the society members are in fancy dress, which can range from Red Indians to Tudor queens, from Greek Hoplites to fantasy characters, and so on. Other Bonfire Boyes and Belles of each society are dressed as smugglers in their society's own colours. Many carry flaming torches and there are some who wield the society's emblem. Then there are hundreds of bangers that get let off throughout the procession, and you are generally left half deaf by the end of the evening, or with a rather irritating ringing in your ears! Each society's Guy will also be paraded through this procession, as well as an huge tableau, which is usually illustrating something of particular political chagrin at the current moment in time. After the Grand United Procession through the town centre, the societies branch off in different direction, with their supporting societies from the other towns and villages, and head to their fire site for the marvellous fireworks displays. The whole evening really is a fantastic spectacle and well worth the visit. Crowds flock to Bonfire Night in Lewes, although in recent years there has been effort to reduce the volume of people, as there's only so much a small historical town with narrow streets can take!

This year it was yet another brilliant night. We had a friend down from Oxford, who loved every minute and got some great photos (something of a challenge considering all the bright lights!). My brothers and the youngest one's girlfriend also joined us, and thankfully it didn't rain, so we were able to stay dry whilst watching the procession. We then headed back to our house where were able to watch four different fireworks displayed, followed by marshmallows and bananas with chocolate fondue! It was a great night, and some of the fireworks were simply breathtaking. Bonfire Night is always a good laugh, and I wore ear-muffs this year to protect my hearing from those pesky bangers! And, as I'm sure you can imagine, the effigies this year were those of fat cats and greedy bankers.

Which brings me to my next story. The Saturday before Bonfire Night, it was the turn of my parents' village to have their Bonfire celebrations. Now most of the local villages around Lewes have Bonfire Night on the weekends surrounding the 5th, throughout October and November. This is because they are all in Lewes on the 5th itself! In my parents' village the firework display on the Green is always utterly fantastic. Sadly, this year, it was very foggy, and so much of the spectacle got lost - great sound effects though! The processions in the villages are always a fraction of the size of those in Lewes. The villages have visiting societies too, including those from Lewes, but each society will give a much smaller representation, saving up for 5th itself. It's still good fun though. This year was a good evening, despite the disappointment of being unable to see half of the display, however, there was something a bit off about the village's chosen tableau: bollards. Yes, you did read that correctly, bollards. We couldn't hear the announcer guy (don't know what his official title is) who leads us into the Remember Remember rhyme before the fireworks begin, very well, but I got the gist of, "Blah blah (angry tone) BOLLARDS, blah blah (angry tone) BOLLARDS!" And indeed, a tableau of some bollards was blown up. Ok, so the parish council or whoever, I don't know, have arranged to have a few, relatively inoffensive, wooden bollards to be put up along grass verges around the village where people shouldn't park. And apparently this is a huge crime, worthy of exploding. Seriously, with everything else in the world, do they have nothing better to complain about!? Apparently the problem is the control element, but as it's happened on about 3 verges, where parking there seems like a bad idea (but clearly people do it) I can't see much to get upset about. What I don't understand is how they ran out of ideas this year... However, I find that this particular village is always a bit thin on the ground for good effigies on Bonfire Night, but their firework display is so fantastic I always let them off. So I guess the fog made me pay more attention this year.

All in all Bonfire Night round these parts is brilliant! You may wonder why people moan about bollards, but that's village life for you ;) And, well, I guess they just live it up to their big sister to give us the really daring stuff. If your problem is bollards or bankers, who cares when there are amazing bonfires and bangers, combined with fireworks and fondue! A great evening :D