But don’t make witty cracks at the expense of the boring chatterbox in your party.
'twas badly done.
Fundraising on Cliffe High Street, Lewes, earlier today.
Foreground, gold and black, Commercial Square Bonfire Society
Background, blue and white, Lewes Borough Bonfire Society; black and white, Cliffe Bonfire Society.
The attire is termed a “Smuggler’s Jumper”. Re the native American chief - not everyone sticks to the proper dress code.
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I have been to Lewes on bonfire night a few times over the years. Sometimes it was marred by too much drunken behaviour. There tends to be a phase when it is an attractive costume parade, which is family friendly. Then a later phase when it tends towards drunken mayhem and there are hooligans who come just for that. The police try to control it and impose restrictions on traffic and parking after a bad year. But they don’t want to suppress what can be an attractive tradition with lots of work going into the costumes and displays when it is at its best. Lewes is a very attractive small town that is well worth a visit and there are other towns along the south coast that also have a big celebration, though not so wild.
These bonfire societies go back a long way. After Henry VIII died and his son, soon after. His daughter Mary turned the country from Protestant back to Catholicism and there were many Protestants martyred in a counter Reformation… Mary herself, Bloody Mary, soon died and was succeeded by Elizabeth I who turned the country back to Protestantism.
Guy Fawkes was a Catholic terrorist and the gunpowder plot was something akin to 9/11 in its audacity. The towns of South East England celebrated the defeat of the Conspirators with particular gusto because many had been persecuted under Bloody Mary.
The celebration is one of the deliverance of Protestant England from Catholic England and their powerful supporters on the Continent. It was a time of Civil and Religious wars that ravaged England and several other European countries from the 16th century. The religious tension only began to ease in the 19th century. These days the political and religious tensions are long forgotten. Though sometimes the figures that will be burned look very like unpopular politicians.
These days some local governments are not keen on the blood thirsty history and restrict bonfires on the grounds of safety and public order. So it is in London where the heads of traitors are no longer impaled on spikes at London Bridge. But out in the Shires they do things differently and it is part of the procession of the seasons. I always enjoyed the fireworks and bonfires as a child though each year there were always grim statistics on the injuries related to firework misuse, especially by teenage tearaways.
The November 5th Bonfire night co-incides with more ancient festivals that involved bonfires and high jinx at this time of year. The start of the party season, feasting and drinking to excess, before hunkering down for winter.
Be careful what you say in East Grinstead!