Bonfire Night's a month of bangs.Byline: Denis Kilcommons KEEP your heads down heads down - [Sun] Concentrating, usually so heavily and for so long that everything outside the focus area is missed. See also hack mode and larval stage, although this mode is hardly confined to fledgling hackers. . Incoming rockets! Yes, it's the battle to survive the nightly bombardment of fireworks fireworks: see pyrotechnics. fireworks Explosives or combustibles used for display. Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to that presages Bonfire Night that these days seems to last for weeks rather than be confined to one night of the year. When you come to think of it November 5 is a barbaric custom. We burn Guy Fawkes on the fire, a chap from York who was one of a group of Catholic plotters who planned to blow up Parliament in protest at religious persecution  The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed.Please see the relevant discussion on the . . Not exactly the democratic way to go about effecting change, but this was 1606 and England was not famed for equality, there wasn't a Court of Human Rights in The Hague or groups of civil rights lawyers willing to take up your case while making a fortune from Legal Aid. Fawkes was the first plotter to be captured; he was tortured for six days, sentenced to death and hanged, drawn and quartered To be hanged, drawn and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for treason. It is considered by many to be the epitome of cruel punishment,[1] and was reserved for treason as this crime was deemed more heinous than murder and other capital offences. . Now try to make that into a child-friendly festive occasion. A bonfire, as an alternative, seems quite humane. Particularly as they were lit to celebrate the survival of the monarchy not to burn anybody. Effigies were optional. I remember magic times at Bonfire Night in my childhood when it was a truly community event. Youngsters saved up for weeks to buy fireworks, they went chumping for wood and the bonfire grew on a bit of spare land. On the night itself dads took over the lighting of the fire, a Guy was produced dressed in someone's old suit and every back door was open. Trestle tables and packing cases were lined up and parkin parkin Noun Brit a moist spicy ginger cake usually containing oatmeal [origin unknown] , home-made toffee and pie and peas were served for free and potatoes were roasted in the flames and eaten half-cooked. I am not bemoaning that this no longer happens because times have changed. These days Bonfire Nights are big organised events with official firework displays and very little sense of community and everything for a fee. And the fireworks go on for ever. Back then, you knew when it was happening and could make sure the dog or the cat was safely inside for the night. These days you have to keep them in for a month. CAPTION(S): BONFIRE NIGHT: It goes on too long these days |
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