We had a really interesting thread about christmas, now lets discuss the halloween and fireworks night week.
Do people still
collect a penny for the guy?
give sparklers to small children?
eat parkin on bonfire night?
go trick or treating?
peel an apple on halloween to see who their lover will be?
go apple bobbing?
play dead man’s fingers?
eat toffee apples?
know the rhyme, remember remember the fifth of november?
Celebrate all saint’s day?
Any other traditions of that time of year that have been lost?
8 comments
They only occurred one night a year… where fireworks happen for about a month now?
Halloween was never a UK tradition! It became one after those goddamn late 90s teen slasher films!
Food: parkin, cinder toffee and parched pea
Bonfires (as opposed to just fireworks).
Building a Guy for the bonfire.
Penny for the Guy.
Collecting all the stuff for months beforehand to [build a neighbourhood bonfire on the local waste land](https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTc0NjQwOTk0NjI4MjgyMzEz/bonfire-night-in-a-working-class-area-in-the-1950s.jpg). Steal stuff from [other gangs’ bonfires](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/06/4f/7e/064f7e2705b31fb3eac95e12bb775a62–bonfire-night-bonfires.jpg).
Bonfires were much more of a thing than fireworks. There were hardly any big organised events. You might, if you were lucky, have a few weedy ones in someone’s garden, the sort where a puny catherine wheel would get stuck in one position, and the one and only rocket was over in one second with a quick ‘weeeeee’ and no explosion.
toffee apples were a thing. And potatoes wrapped in foil and done in the embers.
There was no trick or treating – that really was American.
We used to [carve a swede to make a lantern](https://c.files.bbci.co.uk/5776/production/_92109322_neeptwo.jpg.jpg) and it was REALLY HARD and not worth the pain!
Halloween was never a thing when I was a kid, it was all about bonfire night.
One of our neighbours used to put on a buffet on the closest Saturday to the 5th. and we had a few fireworks
The scout group we were in had one for the whole community , and put on food like burger, sausages and parkin.
We don’t get many trick or treaters coming round
Parkin is more of a northern thing, I would say – my friend from Yorkshire makes it for me.
We have our own midland bonfire night traditions (groaty pudding)
It’s Bonfire Night, not Fireworks Night.