Guy Fawkes stated reason was that he wanted to "blow the Scots back into Scotland", this being just two years after James I and VI took the English throne. The gunpowder plot was a scheme to restore a Catholic to the throne, which in our 'touchy feely' age is possibly another reason why the whole celebration has been diminished over recent decades.
Guy Fawkes was a Jesuit, hated King James because King James knew how vile and wicked the Jesuits were and was getting rid of them from Parliament and any power they had, Guy Fawkes was a traitor, and the lie of Guy Fawkes has been twisted so far from the truth that people are so ignorant that they cheer for this evil man. King James had the Holy Bible translated in to English so that the lies of the Catholic Church which needed a priest to tell the people its scriptures as they used Latin and the people did not realise the evil lies they were getting told. King James put a man in every church in Britain so that anytime day or night the scriptures would be read to all who could not read. King James was the last King who Loved the Lord Jesus Christ and would meet with John Knox daily to reflect on scripture. oh how far the morals of this land has fallen when it turned its back on God.
I did an Erasmus course in Spain just over 10 years and we had classes talking about our respective native cultures. I was amazed that all the European students (all fairly young) knew about Guy Fawkes night! Something wrong with our education system in the UK....
I think his Father was Spanish, he was known in Irish history as the main guy (pun not intended) in the Gunpowder Plot. The whole story is remarkable really. If I was in England tonight I'd try find the biggest bonfire, and enjoy it. These customs are so important.
@@finolaomurchu8217 I seem to recall a young French guy knew the most and he was most certainly from a working class background too....I wish our youngsters from poorer backgrounds took a keener interest in other cultures, no doubt it's out of fear of looking "uncool" and watching too many series from USA
@@alanmarr3323 Of course Mr Marr everything is so much more wonderful in Europe, including the EU. Which rather begs the question why you have not moved there. Instead you like to constantly point out what you view as Britains inadequacies, repeatedly telling us about your foreign born wife, ( apparently a good reason for having mass immigration). However, as I said, why are you still living in Blighty, would your wife's family, and her country, not welcome you?. Or is it more a case of the dream of Europe being better than the reality.
@@alanmarr3323 The UK Corporation pulled Human Rights Education from our national curriculum altogether in 1975. Glad I don't need the matrix to teach me what is embedded in our DNA. Also Great Britain as a nation had been secretly joined into the EU in 1963, 10 years later the UK Corporation announced we as a nation are joining the EU, 10 years of every British tax payers money was been stolen by the non elected EU bureaucrats.
After decades, Nottingham City Council has cancelled the bonfire and firework display on the Forest Recreation Ground. It annually attracted 40 000 people and was a superb community event. The five day NCC funded Diwali celebrations and firework display went ahead as usual
Time to have an evening of diversity and community inclusion instead. I'm certain local residents will learn all about how unimportant it is to be British. Certainly will go off with a Bang!
I am fortunate to have enjoyed three things: (a) being born in 1986, just at the tail end of these things; (b) I was born to slightly older parents who passed down these traditions; and (3) I lived in a working class northern community, in which the rag and bone man still shouted out from his horse. (Ie. It was a bit of a time capsule in itself.) Growing older, I am IMMENSELY grateful for these three things - it meant I had the enormous privilege of enjoying just a taste of this older English way of life. When you talk about many of these lost English customs, I remember them, at least the shadow of them. I used to do penny for the guy, and remember milk bottles, bobbies on the beat, rag and bone men, cheese and cake, a silver piece in the pudding, etc. It’s just enough to make me miss what I didn’t have.
Write your customs down very important. I was born in 1969 in London to Irish parents. I was Christened in Dublin where I grew up so very few people would know where I was born. A lot of the customs like "Rag n Bone" men with horse and cart would be found in Dublin too. However, Guy Fawkes night/Bonfire night never ever done. Halloween was always big in Ireland and the custom went to America where it was tweaked to become more spectacular I suppose a person might say.
Money in the pudding yes that is in Ireland, also money in Colcannon or Curly Kale at Halloween. A ring in the Halloween brack (a tea cake/ currant bread that is cut) whoever gets ring is next to be married. ☘
When I was a kid, we would make a guy and sit outside clubs and pubs and ask for "A penny for the guy" as the boozers would go in. When bonfire night came up, it didn't matter what night it was on, that was bonfire night, we'd put the guy on top of the fire, which was built by peoples' old furniture, paper and branches, etc. It was usually in a field. We'd then put large potatoes, in foil, at the outer edge of the fire. A grown up would look after us and come and light it. All the local kids would be running around with sparklers and bangers and when the fire was calm enough, we would fish out our potatoes, Ahh, those were the days. Now, it's all commercialised and all the fun has been taken out of it, just like Christmas and Easter.
My pals and I used to stand outside the local pub with our guy just before closing time at 2pm to benefit from the generosity of the drinkers coming out.🇬🇧🏴
When we were kids we made a guy and asked for a penny for the guy. We made a lantern from turnips and ate the contents! Bonfire night came at the same time each year the 5th of November, not as it is today at a time in the two weeks before and after. Guy went on the bonfire along with potatoes wrapped in tinfoil to eat later. Fireworks were lit to celebrate the capture of Guy. We had pie and peas and baked potatoes, burgers and hotdogs and it was freezing cold. We all sat around the fire on giant logs to keep warm, we had wonderful times. Unfortunately all our traditions have been wiped out because our government and council don’t wish to offend the interlopers who have no such concern about offending us.
There was a successful campaign from over-protective parents that bonfire night was dangerous, so many bonfire night celebrations were phased out, and people were told to go only to events organised by their local council. This meant that few kids bothered making a Guy Fawkes and few parents bought fireworks, since they wouldn't have a bonfire in their own garden anymore.
There were two occasions when I was at a bonfire, when things went wrong. The first was in 1991, when a fireworks display I went to with a social group, ended up "going wrong", and the fireworks managed to land on some of the spectators. About two or three different ambulances took people away that night. Shocking. Really poorly organised event. The second time, was at a display I went to with a friend in 1998. Whilst standing in the vicinity of the bonfire, a strong gust of wind, blew the smoke *directly* at us. A thick plume of smoke engulfed several dozen people for a considerable amount of time. I got straight down onto the grass and kept my head down to make sure I was able to breathe, but I noticed my friend trying to "waft away" this huge cloud of smoke, which of course had no effect. I tried to pull my friend down also, but they didn't. What's more, they were an asthmatic. Someone else I saw get caught up in the suffocating smoke, was a policewoman. It took A LOT of people with it this cloud of smoke - and I still wonder if anyone had to go to hospital afterwards. It really wasn't an exaggeration to say that it could well have been fatal had it gone on for a few seconds longer than it did. Totally unexpected, and absolutely terrifying.
and now the local councils are phasing them out because they are tight and don't care. the hindus and muslims get their events because they are organized by the religious communities not the councils.
You can still find wasteland piled with scrap and pallets, around Liverpool. I wonder how long this will last, as the demographics are changing rapidly now.
As kids it was the biggest thing besides Christmas. ‘Penny for the guy’ bought us our fireworks and always the fifth of November just as Christmas is always twenty-fifth of December. It was the only time you saw fireworks. Now they’re ubiquitous and the magic has largely gone.
I live in NZ. It's Guy Fawkes night. The fireworks have been going off at every third household for the last four hours and will carry-on well into the night, then will generally continue into Christmas as random as one wants. The best part so far tonight the kids of the neighbour reckon, was when one of the big thumpers fell over and the shots came across the street in succession through them all as they scattered. They were loving it, bug eyed, alive. Once a year the community puts on a huge one lasting for 30 minutes from the lookout above the town. It's awesome. And long may it continue.
Wait, New Zealand also has bonfire night? I guess the English did get around a bit, but still, I thought most former colonies phased out most English traditions.
@@djinnxx7050 No. As you'll notice there is a Union Jack on the NZ flag. We play rugby as the national sport, which is an English game, football and rugby league, cricket, and have King's Birthday weekend. We speak English and Te Reo.
But yet, tonight, a bonfire, jacket potatoes, lots of wine, and a sound pair of wellies, and plenty of laughter will be had in this neck of the woods. Have fun everyone. 😁👍
When I was a child nearly every pub,street,bowling club,cricket club all had bonfires, The skyline and the smell I used to love. You could see fires burning for miles
@@lmg7503 Blind loyalty to something which no longer exists, and never really cared about you, let alone cared, about the people living on the mainland, can't make it up.
@@mariewalker4010 boris de'pfeffel johnson wasn't allowed to hold parties during lockdown but he as p.m. said "f-ck the laws they are for the little people not we who make them" how long i wonder are the brits going to continue to doff their caps and tug their forelocks to the liblabcon liars thieves perverts and traitors of the political and establishment class?.
And the similarity doesn’t end there with a symbols of Catholicism being sent up in smoke at both events. As benign as Guy Faulkes night has become in England, by comparison in NI, the pope must dread the climax to the loyalist marching season, where even images of the kindly pope JP2 have been sent skywards in flames. Tasteless to some, a source of joy for others. Seldom bland, always controversial. It’s a crazy world folks!
Remember my mum trying to scoop out the turnips for us kids her hands would be cut doing so many, I'm 70 now and there are times when I wish we lived now as we did then
I've been a couple of times, on the local news last night they were telling non locals to stay away, sighting subtle hints about large crowd & narrow lanes! a few days after south Korea
@Neil I've done the signwiting on harveys pubs on & off for the last 30 years & julian bell (son of vanessa bell) always did the pictorial signs, not sure if he's still around.
I have very fond memories of making the guy out of old clothes and newspapers and buying the cardboard mask for him. I always hated burning him on the fire though. Boys would push guys around in old prams and sit outside the station crying “ Penny for the guy “? Or written on a sign around his neck. Incidentally it was the only time you ever heard the word guy. Used to save my pocket money to buy individual fireworks which were available in every corner shop. Kept them in a box under the bed. My parents and older siblings always bought a couple of big selection boxes to make it worthwhile. Each of the neighbours would go out into the back garden and light their bonfires and fireworks. Next day on the way to school through the park we would find the “dead” rockets. It was nothing like the garish and overly comercial American Halloween , with its toddlers dressed as ghouls and vampires, complete with dripping blood, tons of plastic crap and tooth rotting sweets. It was both a very special, personal , family occasion and national event, connected to our history and uniquely English. The damp, the cold, the atmosphere , the bright, cheerful fire and the colourful fireworks - the coming of the long Winter. Sad it too has been cleared out of the way to make room for yet something ELSE from outside of these shores.
Lovely history lesson, thanks Simon. I used to love doing "Penny for the Guy." Our cultural history and practices should be revisited, and told to all children. A family member lives in a part of London where unfortunately Diwali reigns exclusively.
The reason why traditional British cultural practices have declined is primarily because of the Internet, it hammered in the final nail in the coffin of British culture; the young generation of people born from 1995 onwards have new ideas of their own so they reject traditions, every new generation re-invents culture.
I miss the look and feel of a bonfire we had in the 60s and 70s. Sadly all the open land around here has gone and vile housing estates has taken it's place, so no chance of bonfires anymore.
People want fireworks banned. But it used to be one night only. Diwali goes on a lot longer and they set off fireworks every night. No matter how many complaints to local council, complaints fell on deaf ears.
Born in 1961 so my memories of Bonfire night are as follows. We never called it Guy forks night, just bonfire night. Neighbours and friends used to collect any combustable material and build enormous bonfires. Usually in an allotment, a large back garden or recreation ground or any waste ground. These heaps had to be guarded as rival gangs would try to ruin things by setting fire to 'our' bonfire or stealing material for their own fire. We always lit the fire on the 5th November whether it was a weekday or not, and regardless of the weather. The brands of fire works we bought as i recall were, Standard, Brocks and Pains. The law meant i couldnt buy fireworks until i was 16, so we asked older kids to buy them for us. They were great times. Health and safety caught up with tv articles showing maimed kids with horrific burns. This eventually meant more organised firework displays and the death knell of smaller family back garden displays. Personally i kept going with the tradition of buying assorted fireworks until my own kids left home. In the context of time and traditions its likely that the 'traditional' bonfire night with bonfires and fireworks lasted from the 1930s to the 1980s so not that long. I consider myself very fortunate to have been immersed in that tradition. Nowadays Halloween is the big thing, another story.
I was born in 66 and yes it was always Bonfire night, we never had fire works, we had sparklers just as dangerous though😂. Great Times. Hallowe’en meant absolutely nothing to us, I remember people apple bobbing, and it was always referenced in the Charlie Brown cartoons shown on TV in the late 1970s
At the age of 57, I remember Guy Fawkes night pretty much as you do, complete with Standard Firework 'selection boxes' bought well in advance and guarding our store of bonfire material to avoid 'raids'! Our street always had a huge fire, lit and managed by the fathers. The fathers of those of us who had fireworks also let them off in the street, so those not so fortunate could enjoy them too. Happy days, indeed!
The bonfire displays of my childhood were amazing. The guy used to be a large straw effigy, the firewood was stacked many feet high and the firework displays involved depictions of battleships duking it out as a finale. These days I hear them let off a week in advance when Guy Fawke's Night falls on a week day. There are no more baked potatoes or marshmallows, but it is marked as a money-grubbing event.
@@seashell1038 Massive dollops of butter... and sausages if you were feeling particularly special. It more than made up for the red noses and sparklers held in mittens ;)
In my native Scotland Halloween has always been celebrated. Children would put on fancy dress and visit the neighbours to collect sweeties. In order to earn their sweets they would have to entertain the neighbours with a song, a joke or a poem. This is called guising. I believe the American tradition of trick or treat to be a bastardisation of the Scottish/Celtic Halloween tradition. Keep up the good work Simon.
I have a photograph of the local school children in the 1880's. They were all dressed up for guising. Even in the late forties and fifties small candle lights were placed on gateposts. Someone in the village would then receive a gift. Could be a salmon or even a haunch of venison or a hare or rabbit. The trick was to deliver the gift and place the lights without anyone seeing you. This was in the New Forest.
Let’s blame the Irish. Joking.😁 Actually, it was almost outlawed here in the US back in the 1920’s, or ‘30’s. It seems it was getting too violent and too much in the way of property was going up in smoke. Many Americans don’t like the commercialization of everything either.
Wait.......... They country where everything in nature is literally trying to kill you every second of the day is worried about a couple fireworks going off? Are they worried about enraging those drop bears I always hear tell of or what 😂? Or possibly causing another emu uprising ( my apologies, I had to go there)?
@@josephskiles lol. Actually aus is very safe, one of the safest in the world. No big cats, bears, wolves, monkeys (they’re really bad). All the danger things you hear of are rarely encountered. Huge myth that one
@@Bluepillphil-d1w yeah it was an attempt at levity on my part, though I have seen pictures and videos of some pretty damned big spiders and such . Is it really true Abbos were considered fauna for a long time?
@@susieq6662 shops closing at 3pm; firework displays on muddy fields; pubs with windows you couldn't see into; pubs with no food; punch-ups? That's all I can think of!
@@rickreid8572 Shops being closed on Sundays, the milkman delivering, half day closing on Wednesdays, children having manners, local 'bobbies' walking his 'beat'.
I had no idea what Halloween was, when I was a child. I was 11 when I first saw a reference to it in a magazine called 'family circle' (an American magazine which gets translated and sold worldwide containing recipes etc. My mother used to buy it at the supermarket). Some six years later I came across my first Halloween party and 30 years after that, that houses in my street started displaying carved pumpkins. As a child it was Guy Fawkes night I celebrated.
I actually went to a halloween party in 1967 in St Ives Cornwall. It was put on by our neighbour who was from New Zealand and all the kids in our street, The Digey attended. A year later we emigrated to Australia and I never saw Halloween celebrations for years, fairly recently in fact as it’s now come over from the US.
@@kualabear I'm 56 from Melbourne and cracker night was huge as a kid and gave me the best memories. Then in the early and mid 70s the nanny state took over around the time of Whitlam gov and by the 80s it was no more.
i dont recall much of Halloween. I always found it distasteful and more recently the US version is not so much a rebuffing of evil images but an enjoying of them. Yuck
The tradition of Guy Fawkes night was started by an Act of Parliament. In 1606, a few months after the gunpowder plot ,an Act of Parliament made it compulsory (although there were no penalties for not doing so) to attend an Anglican Church service at your local parish on 5th November at which the ACT, which denounced Popery and the gunpowder plot was read out. The Act was repealed in 1859.
My children are complaining that their school is celebrating culture but there's no mention of Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night. We are having a lovely big bonfire tonight, a guy and fireworks with treacle toffee etc. Sadly, there are no takers from my children's friends. Most are foreign but even the British ones scoff at the tradition.
I bet their are not many children who know the history behind Guy Fawkes or Guido Fawkes …I’m afraid to say this is the way Christmas is going ..when certain big companies now refer to Christmas as …GIFT giving season ..🇬🇧
@@WillyEckaslike The Christians appropriated Yule to make their Middle Eastern death cult more palatable to European pagans. What does an evergreen tree have to do with Jesus' alleged birth?
I was born in England (Margate) in the late 1940s. Now a professor in the US, I take pride in telling my American students about the history of Guy Fawkes night. My way of keeping English culture alive. At least until I die.
Guy fawkes night ( or as we kids in the fifties called it 'bonfire night' ) was a hugely exiting event. There was little money about but dad always scraped together enough for a 10 shilling box of assorted fireworks and a packet of sparklers. We didn't have a garden as such just a small paved back yard so we couldn't have a bonfire but we did have candles in jars and the battery light from the front of dad's bicycle. I can remember my brothers and I fit to burst with excitement in the ten minutes before dad lit the first firework. Catherine wheels nailed to the outhouse door, roman candles, shooting stars etc At the end we all had a sparkler or two...... At the end, mum gave us each a hot sausage wrapped up in a piece of bread. We were then let to climb up on the coal bunker wall to stare up at the fireworks and rockets our neighbours were still setting off. Really happy and wonderful memories that we have never forgotten. .
It was a very communal thing as well. Sometimes the neighbors would host a fire works party or we would. There'would be baked potatoes and you watch other people's fireworks going off launched out of any milk bottle. Then there would be the lighting of the local bonfire which was always the 'big event'. And every year Blue Peter would have a bonfire night episode.
As a kid in the 60's -Scottish parents but living in London - we too used to hollow out turnips for our lanterns. I don't know when pumpkins came in, but I expect it was an American influence. Back then it was about witches and ghosts but this year I saw a kid dressed as spider man and an adult dressed as a Star Wars stormtrooper >sigh< Point missed? 60's memories of Bonfire night: Always bloody cold and foggy. And raw potatoes thrown into the bonfire, take them out when they're black as coal, peal and eat. Gorgeous at the time.
Shirley yes, you probably have a London accent but the Scottish cultures are there from your parents. Turnips are hard to cut when very fresh, but become more pliable after a few days. I was born in London to Irish parents, but was christened and grew up in Dublin. I am very fond of London, and the real Londoners (if you can find them) are fantastic people.
In the early 70s at primary school we had Guy Fawkes night on the 5th November, whatever day it fell. Then in the early 80s in many places it started being held on the nearest Saturday, which I thought was strange. After all, you wouldn't move Christmas Day to the nearest Saturday. I loved the time of year because Halloween and Guy Fawkes night were two distinct celebrations, not a mish mash of fireworks and confectionary gathering from doorsteps which most young people have no idea about why they do it.
Yes, as a child bonfire night was a big thing on our street, we had a large patch of rough ground perfect for a big fire, we would gather wood for a a month or so beforehand, building a den from the said wood, each year as we grew up the den would become more elaborate. We would go knocking on folks doors in the area and sing to raise money for fireworks and the mum's would all club together and make food for the evening, Parkin always being my favourite. It was the only event in the year whereby we all came together as a community and I remember it fondly. All the other communities surrounding ours would do the same. I'm going mack to the late 1970s to mid 1980s here and the town was Oldham in Lancashire. My parents still live on this street however they are one of only 2 or 3 English families left there and such community sadly no longer exists
When I lived in England, I started collecing my fireworks stash in October. Lots of shops sold them and there were no restrictions on children buying them. You could buy them individually or in boxed sets. I would buy one or two at a time and by November the 5th, I had maybe two dozen. All of them were made in Britain. Two brands I remember were Paines and Brocks. My favourites were rockets, catherine wheels, roman candles, and the cone shaped ones that simulated a volcano erupting. On November 6th, there was always a news story about some kid getting injured by a firework.
Good Times. Yes the day after at school in the 80s so and so had burnt his hand off or gone blind etc etc. Adverts about putting used sparklers in buckets of water so little ones didn't pick them up. Those times were better no matter what people say.
In the late 40s and early 50s we took Mr Fawkes very seriously indeed, competing to achieve verisimilitude. Paper doilies made excellent lace cuffs and collars, and old, turned-down wellies painted brown served as fine 17th century leather boots. His head was stuffed with bangers and was greeted with loud cheers and much glee when it exploded.
Our friend was very small for his age of about 11....and very scruffy as we all were....so we would just push him around the doors in my dads old wheelbarrow....keeping completely still...in the dark he looked like the best Guy ever...people would comment on the great effort we had made making this very convincing Guy and give us extra pennies to our delight !
Here in New South Wales, Australia 'cracker night' as it was known used to be held on the Saturday night of the Queen's Birthday long weekend. In 1986 the NSW government banned the public sale of fireworks and backyard bonfires and fireworks displays were no longer allowed. I remember spending my pocket money at the corner shop to buy packets of throw-downs. Throw-downs were small round paper wrapped bundles that contained little gunpowder coated rocks. There was a target on one side of them and you would throw then on the ground, target side down and they would make a loud crack. They would go on sale a couple or weeks or so before cracker night and the sound of cracking throw-downs could be heard throughout the neighbourhood. I feel blessed to have experience a little bit of the old Australia before the nanny state came down in force.
The annual bonfire night fireworks display where I live has been cancelled after 50 years. It was organised by the local Rotary club which has been infiltrated by the net zero psychos. They are citing environmental concerns for the cancellation. 🤔
When we were kids in the sixties and seventies, we had Halloween parties. My mum was a Lancashire lass and was from a place close to Pendle where they used to burn the witches. Our friends were invited and mum would get a large metal Basin with water and apples in for us to duck for apples. Cakes and jellies and party games, I never knew anyone else in the area that used to have such parties.
@Breas1916 Halloween isn't Irish, it's just the Irish popularised it in America through Samhain and then America exported their commercial version back to Europe. The tradition of celebrating dead ancestors and warning off bad spirits is found across Europe.
Pendle how lovely. My nanny God rest her was born in Lancashire. But moved to Dublin. Did you hang an apple out of thread on a doorway, and try to eat it, with hands tied. The apples in basins of water (apple bobbin') I remember. You should write the customs of Pendle down. Very interesting ☘
I remember bonfire night as a kid. Standing near the fire and feeling the heat. Last organised one I went to was a joke with health and safety. Massive no go area around the fire with safety marshalls every few yards. You can see why the shops go for Halloween with all of the disposable rubbish sold to go along with it. More of a money earner despite it having no significant relevance to our country
On my wife's estate in Manchester they had to take off the garden gate at bonfire night as people used to steal them for firewood. Ahhh. The good old days.
Being the same age as you Simon, my memories are also the same. 31st of October was an entirely Scottish tradition. But of course you have explained the demise of Bonfire Night. It is an English tradition. Halloween, courtesy of the Americans, is now an international one and cannot therefore be criticised as too nationalistic! I live in Hong Kong, a former British colony, where the only celebration now is of Halloween, and Guy Fawkes' Night is completely unknown.
Irish people observed Halloween as well. In a superstitious way of course, now it is more celebrated. The bonfire night not observed in Ireland at all. I can see why Hong Kong people would embrace Halloween, it is more Americanised now and all that. Traditionally a lot of people were trying to keep death away from their home, and then the following days All Saints day and All Souls day, was remembering family members that have passed over. Quite morbid really. I'll do a 🙏for the religious element of it😇
@@finolaomurchu8217 Halloween in terms of all the ghosts and horror stuff, which it seems to embrace rather than defends against, I find disgusting and horrible. One tradition we could do without
Bonfire night in Ireland on Halloween night is basically extinct as a tradition, usually housing estates would have a field or green area nearby to have the bonfire but now every field and green space anywhere near a city is being built on to build housing for mass immigration
I love this one, speaking of old traditions. Anytime you feel like speaking of old traditions, customs, myths, I will be an apt pupil. Internet and old dusty tomes will never take the place of the storyteller, like wandering minstrels and troubadours of old, revered by all and treated as a royal guest. Your wealth of knowledge seems endless my friend.
"Light up the sky with standard fireworks" ....was the song to a TV advert ....& boy we certainly did ..! If you could ignite it ..we DID..! Oh happy days of innocent fun...!
I can remember making a guy and taking it down to the corner of the street. Penny for the Guy was a tradition I have very fond memories being a child of the 50's and 60's.
I was only discussing this the other day, being the smallest boy I was the guy in a barrow, the pennies we got used to buy our fireworks. Those were the days in the late fifties.
Anybody out there remember the sheer excitement at school as you waited to get home (in the dark) and go around knocking doors with your "guy"? The days of preparation and the thrill of earning some extra pocket money! And the compliments for your "guy"... It seemed that everyone enjoyed the fun!
most of them are much to sensitive feminised and emasculated to break even the smallest rules while boris their p.m. broke the effing lot and laughed at them all while he did it.
Thanks for posting as always , yes always good to remember History , as the saying goes ' Guy Fawkes ! the only man ever to go into parliament with 'honourable intensions ????
42 years ago I first realised my teacher at primary school outright lied about Guy Fawkes. A pupil asked her why Faukes tried to blow up Parliament. She simply replied 'he was an Anarchist'. Eventually as I got older I realised that was an utter lie and he was in fact a Catholic mercenary. I've been a skeptic ever since, on any subject from history to science.
Haha yes. He was considered a kind of martyr in Irish history, I have to look that up. The tone used to teach history in the 80's in Dublin was probably more sympathetic towards Guy Fawkes, than it is now. That's a guess now. I had nuns teaching me then😅
Guy was a fanatical English Catholic who would if he came to visit 2022 and visited all of Europe and Britain he would probably just say.. Boloxs to it that was a waste of my time, I could have settled down and had a wife and family..
I came to the deduction that the true purpose for Guy Fawkes night, was to act as a deterrent. A deterrent, against rebellion towards the establishment. Why continue to burn an effigy of a man who's been dead for centuries??
Anywhere near a city centre and you're going to have fireworks already once a week for some stupid reason, even in the daytime which obviously defeats the object of them but oh well...
I'm attending a Guy Fawkes party tomorrow evening. Lots of fireworks, a lovely blaze and jacket potatoes. Alas, no Guy, but you can't have everything...
Ramadan or Diwali(?) anyone? 😖😖😖. Were so busy making sure that the invading cultures and traditions are encouraged to flourish that we’ve consigned our own to the no longer required pile!
Yep, and it's my birthday, so it was always special to have some fireworks and a couple of sparklers. The bloody cheek of it! Mind you, I was watching some former colleagues celebrating Diwali with a big coordinated Hindu dance at the Deloitte offices last week, and I wondered to myself whether they had ever, ever had Morris dancing or English country dancing as a celebration of English culture.
Lovely little video Simon. I remember wrapping up warm on the cold November nights and lighting the candles in the turnips with my friends. We'd use a loop of string for a handle and carry the grinning turnips to the darkest and spookiest corner of the park. Great fun! As a brown skinned mixed race man I know you'll probably disapprove of me enjoying my English heritage but I hope you'll produce more videos on this theme. Thanks. 👍
@@charliegirl3056 Thanks. My grandfather was a black African and his wife, my grandmother was a white woman. Me and my cousins are brown and white mixed race people. We are all proud Yorkshiremen and women and are rooted in England and its culture. There are loads of people like us in England now. We dont need acceptance by Simon and the far right because we are the same as the people we've grown up with - even though we might look different. One thing I'll say about Simon though is he speaks his mind - which is refreshing when free speech is in peril in wider society. Anyway, sorry to ramble on - have a nice weekend. 🙂👍
When I was a kid in fifties I made a guy, I used two long sticks like you would a scarecrow, Dad was an HGV mechanic so he had an oily old boiler suit which, when stuffed with crumpled up newspapers made a good body. An oily old work cap of Dad's was placed on the head as an authentic c.1605 style hat was not available at the time. Consequently, the guy did not really resemble Mr. Fawkes but looked a helluva lot like Dad! When the fire was lit, the smoke travelled up the legs of the boiler suit and exited round the head looking positively demonic! My sisters freaked out and ran inside crying. Happy Days!
In the village Guy Fawkes night was massive. In fact the fire would begin to be built in October. People used to put all sorts on there, beds, old sofas, hedges, pallets, by the time it was finished and ready to light there'd be a huge pile enough to burn for days, and it did. Still smouldering at least 4 - 5 days later despite the rain. The local school would make a Guy to put on top and someone would come round for donations towards fireworks, the display was the biggest for miles around and neighbouring villages would come to watch them. The village hall would open and sell toffee apples and tea. Later people would be standing around the fire late in to the night drinking beer or what have you. Then the council started clamping down. Indeed the fire would be limited to a few pallets from a local farm which had been saved up. The fireworks display was cancelled due to the council saying people parking on the road limited access to any emergency services vehicles which may want to get down the main street in the village. Utter nonsense. Fun police. Some more affluent people around would let off large displays from the school playing field in a clandestine way, fearful of the constabulary attending. Nowadays there's nothing. No community get together, no fireworks to speak of. No penny for the guy. It's lost its soul.
Parkin,toffee apples, treacle toffee , hot Bovril etc. The fireworks were just one part of it. Mum making hot pot or ‘ash’ , with a crust if we were lucky. The lingering atmosphere on the morning of the 6th. Somebody hates us and has done a marvelous job of eradicating all but our fast fading memories.
In the 1950s I was a teenager and fascinated with space exploration. I had read about two-stage rockets and decided to make one for Bonfire Night. Using my earnings from my paper round I bought some large rockets and some small rockets. Using a large rocket and a small rocket I built a two-stage rocket. The idea was that as the first stage large rocket burned out it ignited the piggy-back small rocket, which had its time delay fuse removed. The prototype worked well and the small rocket ignited just as the large rocket burned out and shot off on its journey as the first stage fell to earth. This made me overconfident so I then combined two large rockets instead of a large and a small. The combination was too heavy and the first stage barely made it past the roof tops. The second stage ignited but by this time the whole outfit was pointing downwards. The second stage then did a power dive onto the next door neighbour's shed roof where it exploded. The roof felt then caught fire so we were frantically throwing buckets of water over it. Fortunately it put the fire out. Father then exercised his veto and no more experiments were conducted. It was just one of the many experiments, most of them unsuccessful, that I carried out in my teens. I eventually became a Design Engineer, but not in the aerospace industry. I never considered that I actually worked for a living. My Engineering career was just playing with expensive toys for over 45 years and getting well paid for it.
I would add that we had very little to work with in the 1950s. If we were lucky we had some Meccano, but apart from that it was scrap wood and metal. No Lego. But I believe that with apprenticeships and advanced academic studies at various levels we produced a generation of great practical and inventive Engineers and the like until successive governments killed it all.
I thought people might like to see this from our local social media:- 'WARNING AVOID STRATFORD CENTRE AREA THIS EVENING - Schools have been made aware of plans for youths to let off fireworks at the Stratford Centre this evening co-ordinated on social media.' Apparently, Stratford Town Centre was transformed into something of a war zone earlier in the week by 'youths' (the same ones?) who, according to eye-witness reports and video evidence, practically all seemed to be curiously - shall we say ? - 'sun-tanned'.
I emigrated to Australia in January 1970, so my last 'Guy Fawkes' night was in 1969. I seem to recall private purchase of fireworks was banned around that time. I remember there was a tragic case (amongst many burns cases) where an elderly lady ad a firework go down the front of her dress and she was burnt to death. As a kid 'bonfire night' was one of the highlights of the year.
Happy days a wk before we went back to school after the 6 wks summer holidays we started logging for bommy night love it 👍👍👍👍👍ps Halloween was no big Deal in Manchester in the 1950s
I am an American, born and educated in California, and I learned about Guy Fawkes in primary school! Later his name came up again in a college course on English history. Many Americans of the post WW2 generation were at least vaguely aware of this unique English celebration. Here as in the UK our insane lemming like rush to unrestricted immigration and the celebration of non-western cultures and values, adopting the baseless belief that there is value in not speaking English, and the denigration of our European roots, has trivialized and removed the historical content of important holidays, Christmas, Independence Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and the Presidential Birthdays.
Bonfire night here, we kids made a Guy and dragged him to the top shops on a homemade go-kart made from old pram wheels, little engineers we were. A tin can and asking for a penny for the guy, on the way back we knocked on doors asking Mrs whoever for a penny. Some women made toffee apples on a stick for us also, and bonfire toffee.
I was 8 in 1968, and the back gardens in our road all backed on to one another. The difference then was that everyone was of a similar mindset, unlike today. A smokey bonfire was tolerated whereas today it would not be. Bonfire night was one of the most exciting nights of the year, and many people had fireworks in their back gardens, including bangers of course. Everyone respected Nov 5th, and as kids the thicker the smoke from the bonfire the better, no thought of its carcinogenic properties for sure! Even then Guys were not plentiful, and if we had one it was just an old pillow case with a face on it. The guy was still part of the night though. The smell of fireworks, and smoke, and hanging out the window to see who had the first fireworks whilst waiting for our own celebration to begin, it was all a very exciting and English thing to do.
Guy Falkes the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions
Ain’t that the truth, pity he didn’t manage to fulfil his intention. We could do with a modern day Guy Fawkes who can finish the job this time.
Guy Fawkes stated reason was that he wanted to "blow the Scots back into Scotland", this being just two years after James I and VI took the English throne. The gunpowder plot was a scheme to restore a Catholic to the throne, which in our 'touchy feely' age is possibly another reason why the whole celebration has been diminished over recent decades.
Guy Fawkes was a Jesuit, hated King James because King James knew how vile and wicked the Jesuits were and was getting rid of them from Parliament and any power they had, Guy Fawkes was a traitor, and the lie of Guy Fawkes has been twisted so far from the truth that people are so ignorant that they cheer for this evil man. King James had the Holy Bible translated in to English so that the lies of the Catholic Church which needed a priest to tell the people its scriptures as they used Latin and the people did not realise the evil lies they were getting told. King James put a man in every church in Britain so that anytime day or night the scriptures would be read to all who could not read. King James was the last King who Loved the Lord Jesus Christ and would meet with John Knox daily to reflect on scripture. oh how far the morals of this land has fallen when it turned its back on God.
2ND Was E POWELL !
@@Bomber.. Sadly he went MAD And became fall guy for J & CO !
"The Only Man Ever to Enter Parliament with Honest Intentions"...
I did an Erasmus course in Spain just over 10 years and we had classes talking about our respective native cultures. I was amazed that all the European students (all fairly young) knew about Guy Fawkes night! Something wrong with our education system in the UK....
I think his Father was Spanish, he was known in Irish history as the main guy (pun not intended) in the Gunpowder Plot. The whole story is remarkable really. If I was in England tonight I'd try find the biggest bonfire, and enjoy it. These customs are so important.
@@finolaomurchu8217 I seem to recall a young French guy knew the most and he was most certainly from a working class background too....I wish our youngsters from poorer backgrounds took a keener interest in other cultures, no doubt it's out of fear of looking "uncool" and watching too many series from USA
According to the Times `England has one of the worst education systems in Europe and I agree with that having lived in other countries !
@@alanmarr3323 Of course Mr Marr everything is so much more wonderful in Europe, including the EU. Which rather begs the question why you have not moved there. Instead you like to constantly point out what you view as Britains inadequacies, repeatedly telling us about your foreign born wife, ( apparently a good reason for having mass immigration). However, as I said, why are you still living in Blighty, would your wife's family, and her country, not welcome you?. Or is it more a case of the dream of Europe being better than the reality.
@@alanmarr3323 The UK Corporation pulled Human Rights Education from our national curriculum altogether in 1975. Glad I don't need the matrix to teach me what is embedded in our DNA. Also Great Britain as a nation had been secretly joined into the EU in 1963, 10 years later the UK Corporation announced we as a nation are joining the EU, 10 years of every British tax payers money was been stolen by the non elected EU bureaucrats.
Suppose if our kids aren't taught English history then it's a tradition that's bound to fade away eventually 🤔
With that attitude it's bound to fade away.
Yep, they'll probably have something bought in relating to Africa or Asia as we loose our identity.
@@truckerfromreno
exactly, they are like all losers cowards and defeatists.
Tell them yourself. Talking with our children is important.
@@johnforeman6620 ... I most certainly did, my son's 35 & my daughter's 33. That's your balloon well & truly burst 👍🤪
After decades, Nottingham City Council has cancelled the bonfire and firework display on the Forest Recreation Ground. It annually attracted 40 000 people and was a superb community event. The five day NCC funded Diwali celebrations and firework display went ahead as usual
🤬
😞
not doubting you but where did you get this inforamtion from?
Of course
Time to have an evening of diversity and community inclusion instead. I'm certain local residents will learn all about how unimportant it is to be British. Certainly will go off with a Bang!
I am fortunate to have enjoyed three things: (a) being born in 1986, just at the tail end of these things; (b) I was born to slightly older parents who passed down these traditions; and (3) I lived in a working class northern community, in which the rag and bone man still shouted out from his horse. (Ie. It was a bit of a time capsule in itself.)
Growing older, I am IMMENSELY grateful for these three things - it meant I had the enormous privilege of enjoying just a taste of this older English way of life. When you talk about many of these lost English customs, I remember them, at least the shadow of them. I used to do penny for the guy, and remember milk bottles, bobbies on the beat, rag and bone men, cheese and cake, a silver piece in the pudding, etc. It’s just enough to make me miss what I didn’t have.
I know exactly what you mean. It babes be so sad I want to cry. But it’s also up to us to keep those things alive
But English culture doesn't exist according to the left wing woke commie intellectuals...
Write your customs down very important. I was born in 1969 in London to Irish parents. I was Christened in Dublin where I grew up so very few people would know where I was born. A lot of the customs like "Rag n Bone" men with horse and cart would be found in Dublin too. However, Guy Fawkes night/Bonfire night never ever done. Halloween was always big in Ireland and the custom went to America where it was tweaked to become more spectacular I suppose a person might say.
Money in the pudding yes that is in Ireland, also money in Colcannon or Curly Kale at Halloween. A ring in the Halloween brack (a tea cake/ currant bread that is cut) whoever gets ring is next to be married. ☘
It was usually a tanner in the pudding. Might actually be silver - depending on the year.
Brian May uses one as a guitar pick...
When I was a kid, we would make a guy and sit outside clubs and pubs and ask for "A penny for the guy" as the boozers would go in. When bonfire night came up, it didn't matter what night it was on, that was bonfire night, we'd put the guy on top of the fire, which was built by peoples' old furniture, paper and branches, etc. It was usually in a field. We'd then put large potatoes, in foil, at the outer edge of the fire. A grown up would look after us and come and light it. All the local kids would be running around with sparklers and bangers and when the fire was calm enough, we would fish out our potatoes, Ahh, those were the days. Now, it's all commercialised and all the fun has been taken out of it, just like Christmas and Easter.
Exactly the same for me, used to wait outside the tube station, that was a great patch.
Absolutely mate
Old furniture ends up on eBay, antiques shops or charity shops these days.
Isn't it soul destroying watching anything fun that becomes even slightly popular have the fun monetized out of it by GlobalCorp?
My pals and I used to stand outside the local pub with our guy just before closing time at 2pm to benefit from the generosity of the drinkers coming out.🇬🇧🏴
Haha, my friends and I used to sit outside the bingo hall, the lovely old ladies were very generous.
Didn’t we freeze though with a pair of old socks on how hand has gloves oh what great days lol 😊
Tube station entrances, winner winner.
My helicopter parents didn't want us to grow up in a community where children were typically protected by everyone...
I lived in a pub, I made a packet
When we were kids we made a guy and asked for a penny for the guy. We made a lantern from turnips and ate the contents! Bonfire night came at the same time each year the 5th of November, not as it is today at a time in the two weeks before and after. Guy went on the bonfire along with potatoes wrapped in tinfoil to eat later. Fireworks were lit to celebrate the capture of Guy. We had pie and peas and baked potatoes, burgers and hotdogs and it was freezing cold. We all sat around the fire on giant logs to keep warm, we had wonderful times. Unfortunately all our traditions have been wiped out because our government and council don’t wish to offend the interlopers who have no such concern about offending us.
There was a successful campaign from over-protective parents that bonfire night was dangerous, so many bonfire night celebrations were phased out, and people were told to go only to events organised by their local council. This meant that few kids bothered making a Guy Fawkes and few parents bought fireworks, since they wouldn't have a bonfire in their own garden anymore.
There were two occasions when I was at a bonfire, when things went wrong.
The first was in 1991, when a fireworks display I went to with a social group, ended up "going wrong", and the fireworks managed to land on some of the spectators.
About two or three different ambulances took people away that night. Shocking.
Really poorly organised event.
The second time, was at a display I went to with a friend in 1998.
Whilst standing in the vicinity of the bonfire, a strong gust of wind, blew the smoke *directly* at us.
A thick plume of smoke engulfed several dozen people for a considerable amount of time.
I got straight down onto the grass and kept my head down to make sure I was able to breathe, but I noticed my friend trying to "waft away" this huge cloud of smoke, which of course had no effect.
I tried to pull my friend down also, but they didn't.
What's more, they were an asthmatic.
Someone else I saw get caught up in the suffocating smoke, was a policewoman.
It took A LOT of people with it this cloud of smoke - and I still wonder if anyone had to go to hospital afterwards.
It really wasn't an exaggeration to say that it could well have been fatal had it gone on for a few seconds longer than it did.
Totally unexpected, and absolutely terrifying.
Yeah, I suspect it's that, plus the fact that Halloween is easier to commercialise is what led to the demise of Guy Fawkes more than any other reason.
@@letsdiscussitoversometea8479 What a PONCE.
@@letsdiscussitoversometea8479 There's no smoke without fire 🔥 😉 .
and now the local councils are phasing them out because they are tight and don't care. the hindus and muslims get their events because they are organized by the religious communities not the councils.
Remember collecting (and stealing) any wood you could find to build a fire on some waste land and guarding it until the 5th …
I remember the devastation when security failed☹️
@Andy Extra look outs on the 4th , mischievous night. In case a rival group lit your fire a day early.
You can still find wasteland piled with scrap and pallets, around Liverpool. I wonder how long this will last, as the demographics are changing rapidly now.
As kids it was the biggest thing besides Christmas. ‘Penny for the guy’ bought us our fireworks and always the fifth of November just as Christmas is always twenty-fifth of December. It was the only time you saw fireworks. Now they’re ubiquitous and the magic has largely gone.
I live in NZ. It's Guy Fawkes night. The fireworks have been going off at every third household for the last four hours and will carry-on well into the night, then will generally continue into Christmas as random as one wants. The best part so far tonight the kids of the neighbour reckon, was when one of the big thumpers fell over and the shots came across the street in succession through them all as they scattered. They were loving it, bug eyed, alive. Once a year the community puts on a huge one lasting for 30 minutes from the lookout above the town. It's awesome. And long may it continue.
I hope you Kiwi's make Jacinda Horseface Ardern 'Guys' to put on top of the bonfires 😄
Yeah soon it will be Globalists effigies being chucked on the bonfires. Burn🔥 you kunts Burn🔥
You're lucky here in Oz Guy Fawkes night is never mentioned
Wait, New Zealand also has bonfire night?
I guess the English did get around a bit, but still, I thought most former colonies phased out most English traditions.
@@djinnxx7050 No. As you'll notice there is a Union Jack on the NZ flag. We play rugby as the national sport, which is an English game, football and rugby league, cricket, and have King's Birthday weekend. We speak English and Te Reo.
But yet, tonight, a bonfire, jacket potatoes, lots of wine, and a sound pair of wellies, and plenty of laughter will be had in this neck of the woods. Have fun everyone. 😁👍
When I was a child nearly every pub,street,bowling club,cricket club all had bonfires, The skyline and the smell I used to love. You could see fires burning for miles
Simon the practice of burning wooden pallets and old car tires is still alive and well in Northern Ireland, as part of Loyalist cultural heritage.
Shouldn't laugh, but reading, I couldn't help it. Oh the irony.😁
Wooden pallets yes but we are no longer allowed to burn tires
@@lmg7503
Blind loyalty to something which no longer exists, and never really cared about you, let alone cared, about the people living on the mainland, can't make it up.
@@mariewalker4010
boris de'pfeffel johnson wasn't allowed to hold parties during lockdown but he as p.m. said "f-ck the laws they are for the little people not we who make them"
how long i wonder are the brits going to continue to doff their caps and tug their forelocks to the liblabcon liars thieves perverts and traitors of the political and establishment class?.
And the similarity doesn’t end there with a symbols of Catholicism being sent up in smoke at both events.
As benign as Guy Faulkes night has become in England, by comparison in NI, the pope must dread the climax to the loyalist marching season, where even images of the kindly pope JP2 have been sent skywards in flames.
Tasteless to some, a source of joy for others. Seldom bland, always controversial. It’s a crazy world folks!
A latter day Guy Fawkes is required today and with a successful outcome.
You want to be ruled by King Charles?
Remember my mum trying to scoop out the turnips for us kids her hands would be cut doing so many, I'm 70 now and there are times when I wish we lived now as we did then
Guy Fawkes night is alive and well in East Sussex, in particular the town of Lewes.
@Ken Good ! keep it going.
I've been a couple of times, on the local news last night they were telling non locals to stay away, sighting subtle hints about large crowd & narrow lanes! a few days after south Korea
@Neil It's not a tourist event. It's a traditional event for the town and local villages. And long may it continue.
@Neil Sussex won't be druv. When the rest of the UK has fallen to Islam, Lewes and East Sussex will still be fighting.
@Neil I've done the signwiting on harveys pubs on & off for the last 30 years & julian bell (son of vanessa bell) always did the pictorial signs, not sure if he's still around.
I have very fond memories of making the guy out of old clothes and newspapers and buying the cardboard mask for him. I always hated burning him on the fire though. Boys would push guys around in old prams and sit outside the station crying “ Penny for the guy “? Or written on a sign around his neck. Incidentally it was the only time you ever heard the word guy. Used to save my pocket money to buy individual fireworks which were available in every corner shop. Kept them in a box under the bed. My parents and older siblings always bought a couple of big selection boxes to make it worthwhile. Each of the neighbours would go out into the back garden and light their bonfires and fireworks. Next day on the way to school through the park we would find the “dead” rockets. It was nothing like the garish and overly comercial American Halloween , with its toddlers dressed as ghouls and vampires, complete with dripping blood, tons of plastic crap and tooth rotting sweets. It was both a very special, personal , family occasion and national event, connected to our history and uniquely English. The damp, the cold, the atmosphere , the bright, cheerful fire and the colourful fireworks - the coming of the long Winter. Sad it too has been cleared out of the way to make room for yet something ELSE from outside of these shores.
Lovely history lesson, thanks Simon. I used to love doing "Penny for the Guy." Our cultural history and practices should be revisited, and told to all children. A family member lives in a part of London where unfortunately Diwali reigns exclusively.
The reason why traditional British cultural practices have declined is primarily because of the Internet, it hammered in the final nail in the coffin of British culture; the young generation of people born from 1995 onwards have new ideas of their own so they reject traditions, every new generation re-invents culture.
Downing Street?
I miss the look and feel of a bonfire we had in the 60s and 70s.
Sadly all the open land around here has gone and vile housing estates has taken it's place, so no chance of bonfires anymore.
We do still celebrate Guy Fawkes night.
Our biggest problem is Multiculturalism and importation of Americanisms..
Spot on George!
100% agree George. Why can’t we celebrate both.
People want fireworks banned. But it used to be one night only. Diwali goes on a lot longer and they set off fireworks every night. No matter how many complaints to local council, complaints fell on deaf ears.
@@jayleigh4642 we do
Do you remember the 4th of november been mischievous night...playing tricks on houses round the neighbourhood....was class...
Born in 1961 so my memories of Bonfire night are as follows. We never called it Guy forks night, just bonfire night. Neighbours and friends used to collect any combustable material and build enormous bonfires. Usually in an allotment, a large back garden or recreation ground or any waste ground. These heaps had to be guarded as rival gangs would try to ruin things by setting fire to 'our' bonfire or stealing material for their own fire. We always lit the fire on the 5th November whether it was a weekday or not, and regardless of the weather. The brands of fire works we bought as i recall were, Standard, Brocks and Pains. The law meant i couldnt buy fireworks until i was 16, so we asked older kids to buy them for us. They were great times. Health and safety caught up with tv articles showing maimed kids with horrific burns. This eventually meant more organised firework displays and the death knell of smaller family back garden displays. Personally i kept going with the tradition of buying assorted fireworks until my own kids left home. In the context of time and traditions its likely that the 'traditional' bonfire night with bonfires and fireworks lasted from the 1930s to the 1980s so not that long. I consider myself very fortunate to have been immersed in that tradition. Nowadays Halloween is the big thing, another story.
61 also.. Big fires! Running around with bangers and firing off rockets horizontally.. Great times!
I was born in 66 and yes it was always Bonfire night, we never had fire works, we had sparklers just as dangerous though😂. Great Times. Hallowe’en meant absolutely nothing to us, I remember people apple bobbing, and it was always referenced in the Charlie Brown cartoons shown on TV in the late 1970s
At the age of 57, I remember Guy Fawkes night pretty much as you do, complete with Standard Firework 'selection boxes' bought well in advance and guarding our store of bonfire material to avoid 'raids'! Our street always had a huge fire, lit and managed by the fathers. The fathers of those of us who had fireworks also let them off in the street, so those not so fortunate could enjoy them too. Happy days, indeed!
I was born in '75 and it was always known as Bonfire Night. These days I hear the youngsters call it fireworks night.
Guy Fawkes Night could not be more relevant today. May traitors always meet a treacherous end.
Thus ever for tyrants.
The bonfire displays of my childhood were amazing. The guy used to be a large straw effigy, the firewood was stacked many feet high and the firework displays involved depictions of battleships duking it out as a finale. These days I hear them let off a week in advance when Guy Fawke's Night falls on a week day. There are no more baked potatoes or marshmallows, but it is marked as a money-grubbing event.
Baked potatoes cooked in a bonfire had a taste all of their own. We would look forward to them all evening.
@@seashell1038 Massive dollops of butter... and sausages if you were feeling particularly special. It more than made up for the red noses and sparklers held in mittens ;)
Many counties had their own specific effigies. Perhaps Guy Fawkes and relics of ancient folklore tales rolled into one.
Today the kind of fireworks sold are too loud ...and go on for too long
Another few years, could be Rishi Sunack night
In my native Scotland Halloween has always been celebrated. Children would put on fancy dress and visit the neighbours to collect sweeties. In order to earn their sweets they would have to entertain the neighbours with a song, a joke or a poem. This is called guising. I believe the American tradition of trick or treat to be a bastardisation of the Scottish/Celtic Halloween tradition. Keep up the good work Simon.
The same in ireland .When i was younger we would do that Guising except we didn't call it that .The trick or treating took over from the 90s onwards.
I have a photograph of the local school children in the 1880's. They were all dressed up for guising. Even in the late forties and fifties small candle lights were placed on gateposts. Someone in the village would then receive a gift. Could be a salmon or even a haunch of venison or a hare or rabbit. The trick was to deliver the gift and place the lights without anyone seeing you. This was in the New Forest.
I was about to write something very similar but you made the point for me. Cheers.
We had over thirty guisers at our door this year. The children were all imaginatively dressed. Luckily we had just enough to hand out.
Let’s blame the Irish. Joking.😁 Actually, it was almost outlawed here in the US back in the 1920’s, or ‘30’s. It seems it was getting too violent and too much in the way of property was going up in smoke. Many Americans don’t like the commercialization of everything either.
In Australia the nanny state deemed fireworks too dangerous and so it faded out. Analogous to their effect on our society as a whole.
Bloody health and safety scam
Yes they don’t sell them here in NZ either now , but people get them on line
I think . Other ethnicities have them for their festivals though.
Wait.......... They country where everything in nature is literally trying to kill you every second of the day is worried about a couple fireworks going off? Are they worried about enraging those drop bears I always hear tell of or what 😂? Or possibly causing another emu uprising ( my apologies, I had to go there)?
@@josephskiles lol. Actually aus is very safe, one of the safest in the world. No big cats, bears, wolves, monkeys (they’re really bad). All the danger things you hear of are rarely encountered. Huge myth that one
@@Bluepillphil-d1w yeah it was an attempt at levity on my part, though I have seen pictures and videos of some pretty damned big spiders and such . Is it really true Abbos were considered fauna for a long time?
I haven’t heard “Penny for the Guy” for a long time. Happy Guy Fawkes everyone 🧨 he he
It’s really sad most English traditions are disappearing but other cultures traditions are taking over .
Name 5 traditions.
@@susieq6662 shops closing at 3pm; firework displays on muddy fields; pubs with windows you couldn't see into; pubs with no food; punch-ups? That's all I can think of!
@@rickreid8572 Shops being closed on Sundays, the milkman delivering, half day closing on Wednesdays, children having manners, local 'bobbies' walking his 'beat'.
@@topquark6919 how are shop opening times traditions? Behaviour? That's not a tradition lol - there are almost no British traditions!
@@rickreid8572 the tradition of allowing wet farts like you to speak freely.
I had no idea what Halloween was, when I was a child. I was 11 when I first saw a reference to it in a magazine called 'family circle' (an American magazine which gets translated and sold worldwide containing recipes etc. My mother used to buy it at the supermarket). Some six years later I came across my first Halloween party and 30 years after that, that houses in my street started displaying carved pumpkins. As a child it was Guy Fawkes night I celebrated.
Yeah Hallowe’en wasn’t a massive deal for me as a kid either, but Bonfire Night always was
I actually went to a halloween party in 1967 in St Ives Cornwall. It was put on by our neighbour who was from New Zealand and all the kids in our street, The Digey attended. A year later we emigrated to Australia and I never saw Halloween celebrations for years, fairly recently in fact as it’s now come over from the US.
@@kualabear I'm 56 from Melbourne and cracker night was huge as a kid and gave me the best memories. Then in the early and mid 70s the nanny state took over around the time of Whitlam gov and by the 80s it was no more.
i dont recall much of Halloween. I always found it distasteful and more recently the US version is not so much a rebuffing of evil images but an enjoying of them. Yuck
The tradition of Guy Fawkes night was started by an Act of Parliament. In 1606, a few months after the gunpowder plot ,an Act of Parliament made it compulsory (although there were no penalties for not doing so) to attend an Anglican Church service at your local parish on 5th November at which the ACT, which denounced Popery and the gunpowder plot was read out. The Act was repealed in 1859.
When I was a kid I used to make up a guy fawkes , tights , rolled up newspaper and dads old suit , happy days , I made some money, penny for the guy.
You must have been posh if your dad had a suit 😉
My children are complaining that their school is celebrating culture but there's no mention of Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night. We are having a lovely big bonfire tonight, a guy and fireworks with treacle toffee etc. Sadly, there are no takers from my children's friends. Most are foreign but even the British ones scoff at the tradition.
At least you’re keeping it alive for your own kids. The benefits of mass immigration and multiculturalism never seem to start
I bet their are not many children who know the history behind Guy Fawkes or Guido Fawkes …I’m afraid to say this is the way Christmas is going ..when certain big companies now refer to Christmas as …GIFT giving season ..🇬🇧
the clue is in the first six letters of the word Christmas
@@WillyEckaslike The Christians appropriated Yule to make their Middle Eastern death cult more palatable to European pagans. What does an evergreen tree have to do with Jesus' alleged birth?
@@magnuszilarra9064 on Beeshuuut
Rudolph the Chew wish (J) reindeer
will answer your question
Hmm, Gift-giving season or 'the halidays'.
Just a quick aside. If you are having a bonfire tonight please ensure there are no hedgehogs sheltering inside before you light it.
I was born in England (Margate) in the late 1940s. Now a professor in the US, I take pride in telling my American students about the history of Guy Fawkes night. My way of keeping English culture alive. At least until I die.
Baked potatoes and sparklers.
Loved it.
Health and Safety put paid to that.
Guy fawkes night ( or as we kids in the fifties called it 'bonfire night' ) was a hugely exiting event. There was little money about but dad always scraped together enough for a 10 shilling box of assorted fireworks and a packet of sparklers. We didn't have a garden as such just a small paved back yard so we couldn't have a bonfire but we did have candles in jars and the battery light from the front of dad's bicycle. I can remember my brothers and I fit to burst with excitement in the ten minutes before dad lit the first firework.
Catherine wheels nailed to the outhouse door, roman candles, shooting stars etc
At the end we all had a sparkler or two......
At the end, mum gave us each a hot sausage wrapped up in a piece of bread. We were then let to climb up on the coal bunker wall to stare up at the fireworks and rockets our neighbours were still setting off.
Really happy and wonderful memories that we have never forgotten. .
Still celebrated in my town and it’s always on November 5th.
It was a very communal thing as well. Sometimes the neighbors would host a fire works party or we would. There'would be baked potatoes and you watch other people's fireworks going off launched out of any milk bottle.
Then there would be the lighting of the local bonfire which was always the 'big event'.
And every year Blue Peter would have a bonfire night episode.
Baked potatoes 🥔 yum put in tin foil in the embers of a fire they are cooked to perfection 🥰
A lot of cheeky kids used to use their younger brother as the guy at our local train station, LOL!
Penny for the guy and singing Christmas carols made a lot of money for me when I was a kid.
As a kid in the 60's -Scottish parents but living in London - we too used to hollow out turnips for our lanterns. I don't know when pumpkins came in, but
I expect it was an American influence. Back then it was about witches and ghosts but this year I saw a kid dressed as spider man
and an adult dressed as a Star Wars stormtrooper >sigh< Point missed?
60's memories of Bonfire night: Always bloody cold and foggy. And raw potatoes thrown into the bonfire, take them out when
they're black as coal, peal and eat. Gorgeous at the time.
Shirley yes, you probably have a London accent but the Scottish cultures are there from your parents. Turnips are hard to cut when very fresh, but become more pliable after a few days. I was born in London to Irish parents, but was christened and grew up in Dublin. I am very fond of London, and the real Londoners (if you can find them) are fantastic people.
In the early 70s at primary school we had Guy Fawkes night on the 5th November, whatever day it fell. Then in the early 80s in many places it started being held on the nearest Saturday, which I thought was strange. After all, you wouldn't move Christmas Day to the nearest Saturday. I loved the time of year because Halloween and Guy Fawkes night were two distinct celebrations, not a mish mash of fireworks and confectionary gathering from doorsteps which most young people have no idea about why they do it.
Yes, as a child bonfire night was a big thing on our street, we had a large patch of rough ground perfect for a big fire, we would gather wood for a a month or so beforehand, building a den from the said wood, each year as we grew up the den would become more elaborate. We would go knocking on folks doors in the area and sing to raise money for fireworks and the mum's would all club together and make food for the evening, Parkin always being my favourite. It was the only event in the year whereby we all came together as a community and I remember it fondly. All the other communities surrounding ours would do the same. I'm going mack to the late 1970s to mid 1980s here and the town was Oldham in Lancashire. My parents still live on this street however they are one of only 2 or 3 English families left there and such community sadly no longer exists
No patches of rough ground left now the housing developers soon squeeze as many houses as they can on any piece of land no matter how small it is
@@trevormatthews6005 the patch on my mum's Street is still there, it's become a fly tipping nightmare though 😬
Recently re-opened up fireplaces to heat houses this winter means there'll be far fewer Bonfires. We need the wood!
When I lived in England, I started collecing my fireworks stash in October. Lots of shops sold them and there were no restrictions on children buying them. You could buy them individually or in boxed sets. I would buy one or two at a time and by November the 5th, I had maybe two dozen. All of them were made in Britain. Two brands I remember were Paines and Brocks. My favourites were rockets, catherine wheels, roman candles, and the cone shaped ones that simulated a volcano erupting. On November 6th, there was always a news story about some kid getting injured by a firework.
@golden Little Demon bangers , and Pom Pom cannon.
Good Times. Yes the day after at school in the 80s so and so had burnt his hand off or gone blind etc etc. Adverts about putting used sparklers in buckets of water so little ones didn't pick them up. Those times were better no matter what people say.
Two other old fireworks brands were Astra and Standard.
Still remember the jingle: "Light up the sky with Standard Fireworks!" :)
Bengal matches; came in a box (like regular matches) but burnt red or green like a flare for about a minute !!!
They should now ban the air burst flak fireworks, that scare our pets and wild animals to death. Organised displays are more desirable too.
Looking back on my childhood, these traditions gave much joy. Shame they're disappearing like a fart in the wind...
its your fart your disappearance .
Mr.Webb, when did you last have anyone sing Christmas carols at your door?
Before the covid mate.
In the late 40s and early 50s we took Mr Fawkes very seriously indeed, competing to achieve verisimilitude. Paper doilies made excellent lace cuffs and collars, and old, turned-down wellies painted brown served as fine 17th century leather boots. His head was stuffed with bangers and was greeted with loud cheers and much glee when it exploded.
Our friend was very small for his age of about 11....and very scruffy as we all were....so we would just push him around the doors in my dads old wheelbarrow....keeping completely still...in the dark he looked like the best Guy ever...people would comment on the great effort we had made making this very convincing Guy and give us extra pennies to our delight !
Here in New South Wales, Australia 'cracker night' as it was known used to be held on the Saturday night of the Queen's Birthday long weekend. In 1986 the NSW government banned the public sale of fireworks and backyard bonfires and fireworks displays were no longer allowed. I remember spending my pocket money at the corner shop to buy packets of throw-downs. Throw-downs were small round paper wrapped bundles that contained little gunpowder coated rocks. There was a target on one side of them and you would throw then on the ground, target side down and they would make a loud crack. They would go on sale a couple or weeks or so before cracker night and the sound of cracking throw-downs could be heard throughout the neighbourhood. I feel blessed to have experience a little bit of the old Australia before the nanny state came down in force.
if there is no resistance the nanny state will win every time.
i know of no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot...
Treason?
Or rebellion??
The annual bonfire night fireworks display where I live has been cancelled after 50 years. It was organised by the local Rotary club which has been infiltrated by the net zero psychos. They are citing environmental concerns for the cancellation. 🤔
When we were kids in the sixties and seventies, we had Halloween parties. My mum was a Lancashire lass and was from a place close to Pendle where they used to burn the witches. Our friends were invited and mum would get a large metal Basin with water and apples in for us to duck for apples. Cakes and jellies and party games, I never knew anyone else in the area that used to have such parties.
No, as far as I know, all descendants from Lancashire.
@Breas1916 Halloween isn't Irish, it's just the Irish popularised it in America through Samhain and then America exported their commercial version back to Europe.
The tradition of celebrating dead ancestors and warning off bad spirits is found across Europe.
I have friends that live in sabden, A little village at the foot of Pendle. Lovely little place
@@sh-hg4eg I always thought it's origins were Celtic not American. They call it 'guising'
Pendle how lovely. My nanny God rest her was born in Lancashire. But moved to Dublin. Did you hang an apple out of thread on a doorway, and try to eat it, with hands tied. The apples in basins of water (apple bobbin') I remember. You should write the customs of Pendle down. Very interesting ☘
It lives on in rural towns and country, especially here in Hampshire
The Houses of Parliament blowing up is definitely my top fantasy right now.
Was just at the Guy Fawkes celebration in Lochranza, northern Arran. Bonfire, fireworks, great time
I remember bonfire night as a kid. Standing near the fire and feeling the heat. Last organised one I went to was a joke with health and safety. Massive no go area around the fire with safety marshalls every few yards. You can see why the shops go for Halloween with all of the disposable rubbish sold to go along with it. More of a money earner despite it having no significant relevance to our country
Remember the 5th of November!
On my wife's estate in Manchester they had to take off the garden gate at bonfire night as people used to steal them for firewood. Ahhh. The good old days.
Being the same age as you Simon, my memories are also the same. 31st of October was an entirely Scottish tradition. But of course you have explained the demise of Bonfire Night. It is an English tradition. Halloween, courtesy of the Americans, is now an international one and cannot therefore be criticised as too nationalistic! I live in Hong Kong, a former British colony, where the only celebration now is of Halloween, and Guy Fawkes' Night is completely unknown.
We also celebrated 31st October in Ireland by going Halloween rhyming.
Irish people observed Halloween as well. In a superstitious way of course, now it is more celebrated. The bonfire night not observed in Ireland at all. I can see why Hong Kong people would embrace Halloween, it is more Americanised now and all that. Traditionally a lot of people were trying to keep death away from their home, and then the following days All Saints day and All Souls day, was remembering family members that have passed over. Quite morbid really. I'll do a 🙏for the religious element of it😇
Ironically, The tradition of Halloween was introduced to the US by Scots-irish pagans in the late 18th century as an annual ritual...
@@finolaomurchu8217 Halloween in terms of all the ghosts and horror stuff, which it seems to embrace rather than defends against, I find disgusting and horrible. One tradition we could do without
Halloween is certainly not 'American'.
Bonfire night in Ireland on Halloween night is basically extinct as a tradition, usually housing estates would have a field or green area nearby to have the bonfire but now every field and green space anywhere near a city is being built on to build housing for mass immigration
I love this one, speaking of old traditions. Anytime you feel like speaking of old traditions, customs, myths, I will be an apt pupil. Internet and old dusty tomes will never take the place of the storyteller, like wandering minstrels and troubadours of old, revered by all and treated as a royal guest. Your wealth of knowledge seems endless my friend.
"Light up the sky with standard fireworks" ....was the song to a TV advert ....& boy we certainly did ..! If you could ignite it ..we DID..! Oh happy days of innocent fun...!
I can remember making a guy and taking it down to the corner of the street. Penny for the Guy was a tradition I have very fond memories being a child of the 50's and 60's.
I was only discussing this the other day, being the smallest boy I was the guy in a barrow, the pennies we got used to buy our fireworks. Those were the days in the late fifties.
Anybody out there remember the sheer excitement at school as you waited to get home (in the dark) and go around knocking doors with your "guy"? The days of preparation and the thrill of earning some extra pocket money!
And the compliments for your "guy"... It seemed that everyone enjoyed the fun!
"Blowing up Parliament? We can't have the common people thinking of doing that again, can we?"
most of them are much to sensitive feminised and emasculated to break even the smallest rules while boris their p.m. broke the effing lot and laughed at them all while he did it.
it would be a "great reset" so they say
Thanks for posting as always , yes always good to remember History , as the saying goes ' Guy Fawkes ! the only man ever to go into parliament with 'honourable intensions ????
42 years ago I first realised my teacher at primary school outright lied about Guy Fawkes. A pupil asked her why Faukes tried to blow up Parliament. She simply replied 'he was an Anarchist'. Eventually as I got older I realised that was an utter lie and he was in fact a Catholic mercenary. I've been a skeptic ever since, on any subject from history to science.
Haha yes. He was considered a kind of martyr in Irish history, I have to look that up. The tone used to teach history in the 80's in Dublin was probably more sympathetic towards Guy Fawkes, than it is now. That's a guess now. I had nuns teaching me then😅
Guy was a fanatical English Catholic who would if he came to visit 2022 and visited all of Europe and Britain he would probably just say.. Boloxs to it that was a waste of my time, I could have settled down and had a wife and family..
I suppose dissent towards parliament is not something they want to remind people about these days (for some reason).
I came to the deduction that the true purpose for Guy Fawkes night, was to act as a deterrent.
A deterrent, against rebellion towards the establishment.
Why continue to burn an effigy of a man who's been dead for centuries??
Anywhere near a city centre and you're going to have fireworks already once a week for some stupid reason, even in the daytime which obviously defeats the object of them but oh well...
I'm attending a Guy Fawkes party tomorrow evening. Lots of fireworks, a lovely blaze and jacket potatoes. Alas, no Guy, but you can't have everything...
Ramadan or Diwali(?) anyone? 😖😖😖. Were so busy making sure that the invading cultures and traditions are encouraged to flourish that we’ve consigned our own to the no longer required pile!
Yep, and it's my birthday, so it was always special to have some fireworks and a couple of sparklers. The bloody cheek of it!
Mind you, I was watching some former colleagues celebrating Diwali with a big coordinated Hindu dance at the Deloitte offices last week, and I wondered to myself whether they had ever, ever had Morris dancing or English country dancing as a celebration of English culture.
Lovely little video Simon. I remember wrapping up warm on the cold November nights and lighting the candles in the turnips with my friends. We'd use a loop of string for a handle and carry the grinning turnips to the darkest and spookiest corner of the park. Great fun!
As a brown skinned mixed race man I know you'll probably disapprove of me enjoying my English heritage but I hope you'll produce more videos on this theme. Thanks. 👍
That is actually a very nice thing to hear
@@charliegirl3056 Thanks. My grandfather was a black African and his wife, my grandmother was a white woman. Me and my cousins are brown and white mixed race people. We are all proud Yorkshiremen and women and are rooted in England and its culture. There are loads of people like us in England now. We dont need acceptance by Simon and the far right because we are the same as the people we've grown up with - even though we might look different. One thing I'll say about Simon though is he speaks his mind - which is refreshing when free speech is in peril in wider society. Anyway, sorry to ramble on - have a nice weekend. 🙂👍
I was born on November 5th guy faulkes resurrected through me
When I was a kid in fifties I made a guy, I used two long sticks like you would a scarecrow, Dad was an HGV mechanic so he had an oily old boiler suit which, when stuffed with crumpled up newspapers made a good body. An oily old work cap of Dad's was placed on the head as an authentic c.1605 style hat was not available at the time. Consequently, the guy did not really resemble Mr. Fawkes but looked a helluva lot like Dad! When the fire was lit, the smoke travelled up the legs of the boiler suit and exited round the head looking positively demonic! My sisters freaked out and ran inside crying. Happy Days!
Great comment, i can picture this so well.
I live in Ottery St Mary in Devon. Guy Fawkes (or tar barrels as we call it) is still a HUGE deal here.
In the village Guy Fawkes night was massive. In fact the fire would begin to be built in October. People used to put all sorts on there, beds, old sofas, hedges, pallets, by the time it was finished and ready to light there'd be a huge pile enough to burn for days, and it did. Still smouldering at least 4 - 5 days later despite the rain.
The local school would make a Guy to put on top and someone would come round for donations towards fireworks, the display was the biggest for miles around and neighbouring villages would come to watch them. The village hall would open and sell toffee apples and tea. Later people would be standing around the fire late in to the night drinking beer or what have you.
Then the council started clamping down. Indeed the fire would be limited to a few pallets from a local farm which had been saved up. The fireworks display was cancelled due to the council saying people parking on the road limited access to any emergency services vehicles which may want to get down the main street in the village. Utter nonsense. Fun police.
Some more affluent people around would let off large displays from the school playing field in a clandestine way, fearful of the constabulary attending. Nowadays there's nothing. No community get together, no fireworks to speak of. No penny for the guy. It's lost its soul.
Parkin,toffee apples, treacle toffee , hot Bovril etc. The fireworks were just one part of it. Mum making hot pot or ‘ash’ , with a crust if we were lucky. The lingering atmosphere on the morning of the 6th. Somebody hates us and has done a marvelous job of eradicating all but our fast fading memories.
people who hate us are our enemies but you keep voting for those who hate you for who else but the liblabcon do you think is doing it to you?.
In the 1950s I was a teenager and fascinated with space exploration. I had read about two-stage rockets and decided to make one for Bonfire Night.
Using my earnings from my paper round I bought some large rockets and some small rockets.
Using a large rocket and a small rocket I built a two-stage rocket. The idea was that as the first stage large rocket burned out it ignited the piggy-back small rocket, which had its time delay fuse removed.
The prototype worked well and the small rocket ignited just as the large rocket burned out and shot off on its journey as the first stage fell to earth.
This made me overconfident so I then combined two large rockets instead of a large and a small.
The combination was too heavy and the first stage barely made it past the roof tops. The second stage ignited but by this time the whole outfit was pointing downwards. The second stage then did a power dive onto the next door neighbour's shed roof where it exploded. The roof felt then caught fire so we were frantically throwing buckets of water over it. Fortunately it put the fire out.
Father then exercised his veto and no more experiments were conducted.
It was just one of the many experiments, most of them unsuccessful, that I carried out in my teens. I eventually became a Design Engineer, but not in the aerospace industry.
I never considered that I actually worked for a living. My Engineering career was just playing with expensive toys for over 45 years and getting well paid for it.
I would add that we had very little to work with in the 1950s. If we were lucky we had some Meccano, but apart from that it was scrap wood and metal. No Lego.
But I believe that with apprenticeships and advanced academic studies at various levels we produced a generation of great practical and inventive Engineers and the like until successive governments killed it all.
I thought people might like to see this from our local social media:-
'WARNING AVOID STRATFORD CENTRE AREA THIS EVENING - Schools have been made aware of plans for youths to let off fireworks at the Stratford Centre this evening co-ordinated on social media.'
Apparently, Stratford Town Centre was transformed into something of a war zone earlier in the week by 'youths' (the same ones?) who, according to eye-witness reports and video evidence, practically all seemed to be curiously - shall we say ? - 'sun-tanned'.
I remember going on a school day trip to dieppe in 1977, every boy smuggled back illegal bangers.
I loved them days as a child ,🇬🇧
I emigrated to Australia in January 1970, so my last 'Guy Fawkes' night was in 1969. I seem to recall private purchase of fireworks was banned around that time. I remember there was a tragic case (amongst many burns cases) where an elderly lady ad a firework go down the front of her dress and she was burnt to death.
As a kid 'bonfire night' was one of the highlights of the year.
Over~the (newsagent's)~counter was common into the 80s AFAIR.
I really miss the old tradition, so so sad.
Whatever happened to treason laws?
I miss being wheel barrowed about collecting money for the Guy... :)
Health and safety is what happened. Everything we used to do has been regulated out of existence.
"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot,
I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot".
Happy days a wk before we went back to school after the 6 wks summer holidays we started logging for bommy night love it 👍👍👍👍👍ps Halloween was no big Deal in Manchester in the 1950s
I am an American, born and educated in California, and I learned about Guy Fawkes in primary school! Later his name came up again in a college course on English history. Many Americans of the post WW2 generation were at least vaguely aware of this unique English celebration. Here as in the UK our insane lemming like rush to unrestricted immigration and the celebration of non-western cultures and values, adopting the baseless belief that there is value in not speaking English, and the denigration of our European roots, has trivialized and removed the historical content of important holidays, Christmas, Independence Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and the Presidential Birthdays.
Sad when you loose your culture and heritage.
Come back Guy all is forgiven....
Bonfire night here, we kids made a Guy and dragged him to the top shops on a homemade go-kart made from old pram wheels, little engineers we were. A tin can and asking for a penny for the guy, on the way back we knocked on doors asking Mrs whoever for a penny. Some women made toffee apples on a stick for us also, and bonfire toffee.
I was 8 in 1968, and the back gardens in our road all backed on to one another. The difference then was that everyone was of a similar mindset, unlike today. A smokey bonfire was tolerated whereas today it would not be. Bonfire night was one of the most exciting nights of the year, and many people had fireworks in their back gardens, including bangers of course. Everyone respected Nov 5th, and as kids the thicker the smoke from the bonfire the better, no thought of its carcinogenic properties for sure! Even then Guys were not plentiful, and if we had one it was just an old pillow case with a face on it. The guy was still part of the night though. The smell of fireworks, and smoke, and hanging out the window to see who had the first fireworks whilst waiting for our own celebration to begin, it was all a very exciting and English thing to do.