Why do you still celebrate bonfire night?

Answer 1

In answering this I am going to assume someone has asked why the UK still celebrates bonfire night.

Because who does not like a good fire and some explosions. I myself have just spent £250 hard earned pounds for this years festivities. Also there was a man by the name of Guy Fawkes who was somewhat of an Irish revolutionary and he tried to blowup the Houses of Parliament way back in 1605 but he was thwarted in the nick of time.

So some celebrate the survival of British democracy. But that number of people is small when compared to those who like fires and explosions. But not everyone wishes it was still celebrated.

Every year lives are lost through childish stupidity and accidents. Hands and faces are torched. Houses are torched thanks to some thinking it intelligent to stuff burning material and or fireworks through people's letter boxes. A lot of peoples' are thoroughly afraid of all the noise and smell of gunpowder in the air etc.

Successive governments over the years have tried to dampen down the appetite for the night or tried to ensure people attend professional displays where you are always at least 250 to 500 meters away and you cannot stand next to a controlled fire etc. There was even somewhere once that projected the image of a fire onto a large amount of wood of wood. Needless to say I disapprove.

So, why do I still celebrate Bonfire Night? Because I love the slow build up to it. The first firework heard 2 months beforehand which gradually becomes more and more every night until the sky is filled with flashes of light and explosions on the 5th of November.

The palls of smoke that drift through the streets from countless fires and fireworks. The beautiful smell of cordite, gun powder and burning wood fills your nostrils when you venture outside.

Then you take your wood you have been stockpiling all year or raid a few skips for wood and build yourself a fire. You have a few drinks with friends and family, once everyone is comfortable you can begin the show by launching the biggest rocket you have to let everyone else know you have started.

Then you run around lighting hundreds of pounds worth of fireworks in a pre-planned launch sequence then drink in the sights and sounds of your hard work. Its the closest a civilian can come to experiencing a war zone.

That is why I and many other people in Britain love Bonfire Night. But like I said not everyone does.