Remember, Remember the fifth of November.

Remember, remember the fifth of November.
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."

While Halloween was not a big deal here, Guy Fawkes (5 November) was a very different story! This evening originates in 1605, Guy Fawkes was one of thirteen who conspired to blow up the (Protestant) King James I and VI of Scotland his Lords in order to cause turmoil and raise a new monarch to hopefully return England to its Catholic past. The plot was discovered and he was arrested. The surviving conspirators were executed. In January of 1606 the ‘Thanksgiving Act’ was passed which stated that for at least 250 years the 5th of November was to be kept free as a day of thanksgiving. The actual celebration has greatly changed over the years but I think that it is pretty cool that the tradition is still kept alive!

My experience of Bonfire Night started with me busing home in the pouring rain, trying to decide what to do. After a long day at school a night watching movies sounded perfect but in the end I decided to pull up my socks, literally and quickly change for our new adventure!

We took the bus back into town and jumped on the train just as it was leaving the station. We took the train to the right spot, got off and then realized that none of us knew where we were actually going...so we randomly turned left and started walking, thankfully the right direction! 

As soon as we got off the train you could already smell the fire! It instantly reminded me of the fire at Moms and Dads back home, a perfect country smell! As we walked there were more and more people joining in the schlep to the Pride Park. I was wearing my winter coat, a million layers of clothes, my winter coat mittens and scarves, after walking at a brisk pace for what seemed like forever I wished that I had worn a few less layers of clothing! I felt like it was the 5 of July, not the 5th of November!

As we entered the park we could see the bonfire almost immediately, it was huge! 

We found our Canadian teacher friends, ate their delicious donuts and enjoyed the heat from the fire. We missed the lighting of the fire but when we got there it was still HUGE and because it was raining and everything was pretty much soaked you could see it all evaporating off the ground and the peoples coats, pretty cool. 

In Canada, the rain and general miserableness of the weather would have cancelled the event all together, not in jolly-ol England! They rise to the occasion! There were TONS of people, dressed in everything from the typical heels and short skirts found on many Birmingham women to rubber boots and rain coats. Umbrellas were everywhere, at one point I had to literally dive out of the way to avoid losing my right eye to the worlds largest umbrella being carried by the worlds shortest man. And they were all having a blast!

Along with the monstrous fire there was also a huge midway with tons of rides and games typical of all Canadian fairs and tons of little food ‘huts’. The lines for these were insane, some 50 people long! We found one with a short line and ended up having them put cheese and gravy on our fries, delicious!  While eating our fries the fireworks started, they were truly amazing! They went on forever, a great show! The fireworks made the long journey worth it! 

On the way back the train was delayed 4 times and we missed our bus back to our house by 2 minutes so it took about 2 hours to get home....2 hours too long haha. But this typically British experience was well worth it.