November's Five Festivals Are Colliding Into One Strange Fortnight
Keeping the Bonfires Lit
Halloween, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Day, All Saints and All Souls all fall within twelve days each November — a jumble of fire, feasting and mourning that looks timeless but is barely a century old in this arrangement. Eleanor Parker traces how each ritual evolved, why Halloween's commercial rise may be eclipsing Bonfire Night, and what happens to remembrance as living memory of the world wars fades.
If the resulting season seems rather confused, that's not surprising; ritual behaviour does not have to be logical for it to be meaningful.
- vintagedave
> Deeply political in its origins, [Bonfire Night] was born of a specific moment of national crisis in the 17th century. Does it still resonate today, when the narratives of our national history are ever more contested?
It's a mildly horrific celebration, with its tradition of burning an effigy (Guy Fawkes.) The man himself was not executed by fire, but in the end by hanging, I think. Wikipedia has some unpleasant details of what was planned for him.
Yet today, effigies of other people are placed on the fire. I feel it is a relevant festival, in that unlike Halloween (spooky ghosts, commercial) it's a deeply political festival, the result of failed revolution. It's a celebration of the establishment winning, and yet somehow people see it more as a celebration of the attempt.
- comrade1234
Very little information in that article. For example I would have expected something about Samhain - precursor to British Halloween in Ireland, Scotland, Celtic areas.
- hedora
So, I had to look up Bonfire night. I think the article is about Guy Fawkes Night. Guy Fawkes masks became popular here in the US a few year ago, and are still reasonably common. Second Halloween with political effigies and big fires seems like it could do well, though it'd probably land on Election Day...