My Bonfire is Bigger than Yours

Saturday, November 3

Today was a lazy, lie-in kind of day. I did not get up until 10 am when I decided to make pancakes. They turned out much better than the ones I made last week, probably because I had milk to use this time instead of water.

It was 5:30 pm before I even left our flat. By that time it was completely dark outside and Amy, Caitlin and I were headed to South Park for the Guy Fawkes Day festivities (Libby went to the Isis Farmhouse Tavern with some other people). The air already smelt like burning wood from the bonfires.

Guy Fawkes Day, also called Bonfire Night, is a remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1604, Guy Fawkes and several other Catholic conspirators plotted to assassinate King James I, allowing Spain to seize control of England and return it to being a Catholic country. On November 5, barrels full of gunpowder were piled under the Parliament building to cause a massive explosion that would kill the king wile performing the opening ceremonies for Parliament.

The plot was discovered and the conspirators arrested. Guy Fawkes was hung for his crimes a year later, but he will always be remembered since he now has a holiday named after him.

The main festivities for the night were held at South Park, a huge grassy area at the base of Headington Hill and about a fifteen minute walk from our flat. It was incredibly lucky that it was not raining, however the ground in the park was pretty much a giant mud pit. The ground squished underfoot and we had to walk very careful or risk falling into all of the mud. I definitely did not want to ruin my new coat...or the embarrassment of landing in the dirt soup.

The park was set up in three sections: one with all of the fair rides, one with a stage with live music, and the other with the food stalls and bonfire. There was a Scrambler, tiny ladybug ride, swings, carousel and a Back to the Future motion theatre. This area of bouncy music and rainbow lights was dominated by children and their parents.

There were probably at least twenty different food stalls but they all sold the same basic things: mulled wine, hot tea, burgers, hot dogs, doughnuts and sausages.  One stall was even called A Taste of America. They sold bratwurst, not really the first thing I would have though of, but OK. Sadly, there was no funnel cake, the best of American fair foods, in my opinion.

We ate dinner before we left so none of us partook in the main course fair foods. Amy did buy a bag of pink strawberry cotton candy, reminding herself when ordering that in the UK it is called candy floss. Cotton candy seems like a much more appropriate name to me. The delicate sweet has a much greater resemblance to fluffy cotton than it does to stringy floss.  

The stage was cool because the back wall was lit with a kaleidoscope of colors that changed with the music. The first man singing was decent, though he could not do his Ed Sheeran cover justice. The next man and then a woman were not anything more than alright. They both sang, at different times, "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz. One of the lines of the song is "I throw my hands up in the air sometimes. Saying AYO! Gotta let go!" and their singing definitely did not make me want to throw my hands in the air. Later, the girl sang "Wonderwall" by Oasis, a power ballad by Amy's estimation which means that it is normally sung very powerfully with emotion. In my opinion, she sang it too slow without the strength of the original version.

We wandered around the festivities until 6:45pm when the fireworks were supposed to go off near the bonfire. Now, this was no ordinary bonfire. It was absolutely massive, a two-story high pile of wood pallets. It seemed almost the size of a small apartment building. For a country that seems so fixated on fire safety (there are two fire extinguishers, a fire blanket, a numerous fire safety signs in our kitchen), they definitely go all out for this holiday where fire is the main attraction.

Thousands of people crowded around the second barrier surrounding the bonfire, but instead of starting the fireworks, some people began to do fire dancing. Neither Amy or I could see over people since we are so short, so Caitlin would tell us what was going on. At one point the dancers spun their fire, which I believe was on a long rope, in a large circle, throwing sparks high into the air. I bet it would have been amazing to see from the very front of the crowd.

Next came some sort of acting troupe. Caitlin said that they were wearing hats with either blue or white lights and dancing around with flags. We think that the flags said "East" and "West." When they started I thought that they might be acting out the Gunpowder Plot and the eventual capture of Guy Fawkes, but I really do not know what they were doing.

Finally, at 7:20pm after standing in one spot for nearly 40 minutes, the fireworks began. It was incredibly strange to be watching fireworks while bundled up in a long coat, gloves, scarf, two pairs of socks. In the United States, you normally watch fireworks on July 4th when it is very warm outside.

The fireworks were shot off much lower than I have ever seen. I was worried that a tree would catch fire, but I guess it would not bother the British as much since everything is wet most of the time. I also found it to be more repetitious than firework displays I have seen in America. Several of the same type of firework would be shot off in a row, causing them to loose a bit of the awe. One of my favorites looked like giant sparklers, but after the sixth one in a row I was ready to see something new.

The explosive display lasted about fifteen minutes and then it was ready for the moment everyone was waiting for, the lighting of the bonfire. A man shoved a lit torch in among the pallets on the left side of the structure and the flames licked upward immediately. The entire left side was alight in less than a minute, and I am guessing that a lot of gasoline had been used to make it burn so quickly.

The sight was breathtaking and hypnotic. I found myself entranced with the orange flames for long stretches of time, just watching the colors change from oranges to yellows with streaks of black smoke. The flames almost looked like a painting. The barrier was set up several hundred feet from the bonfire but we could still feel its heat on our faces. The warmth felt heavenly on my numb nose and ears. We stayed until all of the tall stacks of pallets had toppled into a formless, burning mass. Leaving the warmth of the fire was difficult and made the walk back to the flat far from enjoyable.