MrGreen

Thinking about throwing a bonfire night get-together with a back yard fire, fireworks, beer and food etc to give our Candian pals a taste of the tradition. Anyone else tried to do this in Canada? How did it go down?

dbd33

It went well but there were no Canadians. One tends not to meet the unhyphenated in Toronto.

gryphea

No fireworks allowed in calgary!

dbd33

Oh God that sounds a dreary town, no fireworks, laundry regulations, what happened to the Wild West?

bsmith

....it's now the Mild West

Alan2005

Now that's a lot funnier than your 'if' joke on the copyright thread.

MB-Realtor

What with the permit for the Bonfire and the permit for the Fireworks, and the damn snow that is invariably with us by Nov.5th, we gave up on that a long time ago.

gryphea

WE had a new british guy arrive this week to start at my work. He is someone I used to work with- so they came over for supper this week and we were telling them all the bylaw stuff. Have to mow lawn etc. We've grwon accostomed to it- but it sounded so funny telling them all this stuff.

ClanickP

what other bylaws are there? Didnt know about the lawn one

ClanickP

Lord Vader

I think the average Canadian probably does that 5-6 times a year. Good fun.

Atlantic Xpat

We'll be having our fourth annual fireworks and bonfire* party next weekend. No permits required. Canadians in attendance.

*A more accurate description is 'fire in a rusty 45 gallon oil drum'. Makes less of a mess on the lawn, gets just as hot and has a certain red neck charm.

Greenhill

We (well, not me) spent half of last weekend making a scarecrow for Halloween. It's made from smart old clothes, stuffed with straw and has an elaborately detailed sack cloth head. It's easily as big as a child-sized person.

My intuition tells me to put it in my kid's old pushchair and send her out begging for fireworks money "penny for the guy" style. I'm sure there's a life lesson to be learned here.

I also have an overwhelming desire to put it on the firepit and stare unblinkingly into the flames (while thinking about Britt Ekland dancing naked in an Inn room somewhere in a remote Scottish Island).

I'm sure the neighbours won't mind.

Dave+Jules

We hold one every year, it has two significant meanings for us.

1. The celebration that someone attempted to blow up parliament
2. We landed on Nov 5th so it is our canniversary

We invite the neighbours(to make sure no one calls the fire brigade) , burn a guy (try explaining that one to your Wesleyian neighbours) and eat traditional food such as bonfire toffee, mushy peas, beef stew and chicken curry plus make a big batch of mulled wine.

We hold it as a pot luck and BYOB (bring your own bottle/beer). Generally a great success and I am sure most people come to see if I will be successful in my attempts to set fire to myself while setting off fireworks

Cassie 10000

That sounds good, Neil was asking me the same question the other night.

ann m

We have a major firework issue in our area, ie, not allowed

And without fireworks and sparkly skies, I can't be bothered to stand in the snow looking at a small suburban fire

Anyway, by the time we have 'helped' our kids get through the disgusting amount of sweets they will gather tonight for Halloween, none of us will be able to waddle out the back door by next week ....