Banning Fireworks Day!?!

*Catherine Wheel* ohhhhh...Also, what are your fave fireworks?

big ones

It got banned here ages ago. No loss - now I don't get burnt fingies and sore ears every year.

Hallowe'en should be banned as it's a shit holiday and an excuse for under-age extortion rackets. Bonfire Night however is brilliant and the one night of the year when I enjoy drinking soup.

Every third night of the year is fireworks night in north london

last time but one dr vick was round for buffy it gt so noisy we decided it was terrorism and went on the roof to look but of course cd see nothing

my mum (in somnolent shropshire) was jolted out of bed by a HUGE crash on sat night. Her first tht: "I've been driving round all day and all that time there was a car bomb under it!!" Second (as vocalised to dad): "A meteorite just fell on the gravel!!"

How would you react if people started burning Osama Bin Laden effigies in place of Guy Fawkes? Might this happen?

I'd be all for it. I'm always a bit envious of the effigy-burning action that Arab states seem to go in for: it's a tradition of popular protest we in the West have forgotten.

do they not burn the pope in effigy at lewes every year? before rolling giant cheeses up a maypole or summat?

heh: in first rush to post i spelled effigy thus — "eggify"

I wuv fireworks night, and Halloween too.

Any excuse to burn and blow up things should be welcomed, surely?

<beavis>Yesssssss! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!</beavis>

Why would you ban a holiday that's all about candy?

(That holiday being Halloween, of course.)

is this guy fawkes day ?

Surely, to ban Fireworks Day would mean that fireworks would have to be banned because otherwise it'd be like, OK you can have fireworks every other day of the year but NOT NOVEMBER 5TH. That'd be dumb.

A couple of years ago, my mum decided I was too old for fireworks and so it'd be the last year she bought any. She gave me and my brother the money to go get them and we bought 1 packet of cheapest sparklers possible and the biggest, most expensive rocket we could find. Yessss!

Bonfire night in Ottery St Mary is without a shadow of a doubt the best night out in Great Britain.

Proof here: Tar Barrels.

The first movie on the 2000 barrels / movies page gives quite a good impression of what it's like.

Please note that this link has nearly been posted on the autumn and paganism threads. The tar barells are the best thing about both autumn and paganism.

By comparison, fireworks are rubbish.

That looks fantastic.

It *really* is. Best avoided if you're afraid of crowds, or drunks, or huge great big blokes bearing down on you carrying massive wooden barrels lined with flaming tar.

We used to make molotov cocktails for fun and throw them at old cars in one of the paddocks at home (we had a bit of a car graveyard happening) but then I got freaked out that one might explode in my hand one day.

Tim, I've never understood what they do with the flaming barrels - chase about aimlessly, have a game of tag, try to score goals, follow a route...? Explain your Pagan tradition.

Walking down the Gray's Inn Road yesterday someone was letting off fireworks in one of the side streets. Scared me shitless. Last year in Winchester I was walking through Oram's Arbour (local park) to a friend's house and these kids were letting rockets off in the middle of the park. I thought that was safe till I discovered they were aiming them randomly about at things that included me! Jesus. Anyone who makes trouble with the things can be locked up for the night. Anyone else is fine.

Madchen, there are ten barrels through the evening, each setting off from the site of a pub (or the site of a former pub). I generally get to see five or six.

The fellows carrying the barrels run about more or less aimlessly, often chasing after some poor unfiortunate who catches their eye. The best barrels are the ones in narrow streets, because the crowd has nowhere to go when the barrel comes steaming past, and people fall over each other and much hilarity / injury ensues. People who find 'safe' vantage points to watch the action are also fair game. A couple of years back someone climbed up a lamp post to see a barrel in the main square, and found themselves being singed...

A couple of years back I remember seeing a man with blood streaming down his face from a rather nasty cut above his eye. His friends were telling him that there were some St. John's Ambulance people just down the road who'd patch him up. "Never mind about that" he said, "just get me another pint of cider."

Last year was distinguished by being much quieter than usual (they weren't letting cars park anywhere near Ottery because of the floods) which meant we could get nearer to the action, but the crowd didn't surge the way it sometimes does. It also meant easier access to fine bars selling high-quality proper cider and rough old sherry. Danger!

Tim - I went to Ottery St Mary for Bonfire Night about five years ago. I had to run away from a crowd of marauding people carrying one of those huge tar barrels belching fire and smoke about a metre from my face. Scared the living shit out of me, that did. Leeds festival riots? Gah, bunch of ponces.

We spent about an hour and a half wandering round the village looking for one single solitary barrel, and then a bit later we seemingly couldn't turn a corner without one of them coming at us.

I like fireworks esp. rockets which are now banned here. But they there are often assholes who stick them in seal's eyes and blow up seagulls and other gratuitous cruelty.

i'd make it illegal to buy fireworks unless you spend a minimum of £100 and agree to set them all of at once