VCox

This is one UK tradition I'm really going to miss, I love going to an organised bonfire.

Can you buy fireworks for private use in Canada? I always thought the backyard ones are pretty naff but it'd be better than nothing And I don't suppose you can have a little bonfire in your own yard?

I remember looking at the fireworks last year thinking it'd be my last ever Guy Fawkes night. And here we are one year on and still in the UK.... This time last year we'd just put the house on the market and this time round we're hopefully about to exchange. If we're still here for bonfire night 2007 then something has gone drastically wrong !

V

zmartin

I said exactly the same thing to my husband last night - that it's going to be something I miss as I love fireworks! However, I know that where we're looking to go they have fireworks for Hallowe'en instead so hopefully I'll still get to see some.

Zoe M. xx

cov-canuck

This is one thing I'm NOT going to miss. Fireworks going off at all hours of the night from mid-October to December, finding burned out rocket casings all over the place, etc.

They have fireworks in Canada in May I believe (Victoria Day?)...but no bonfires.

britishvixen21

Even after nearly 4 years I still miss bonfire night. I miss seeing the little kids doing penny for a guy LOL, if we had a house and when we get a house we might start doing our own. its a tradition i miss.

Alberta_Rose

I tried to explain Bonfire Night to some friends here. I got a little confused in the end, regarding the gunpowder plot, the burning of the guy, and the anti-papacy processions, the trouble that often occurs at places like Lewes ...... my Canadian buddies were a little nonplussed as a consequence, and left with the impression of what a violent people "you Brits" are indeed!

Steve_P

You may be able to buy fireworks in some locales in Canada.

In Calgary fireworks and back yard fires are strictly controlled. Here is a threaded started last month regarding bon fires and fireworks in Calgary.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ight=Fireworks

Cheers
Steve

Linda P

I miss it too.....

Gazing at the flames.......watching the kid's faces!!!!

For the last few years before coming to Canada we had gone to Roundhay Park in Leeds.....great display, bag of chips on the way home!!!!

I also loved the next day......the smell of all the fires from the day before... (I know I'm sad )


Linda

SivoxII

I was talking about this to my wife last night. (I should explain that I'm Scottish, now resident in Canada for the last 4+ years. My Wife is Canadian, a "lifer" you could say)

Anyway, I was talking about Bonfire Night last night, how surreal it used to be when I left the house a few years back & walked over to my friends house, 20 minutes away from home. In my town alone, there were dozens of organised events (bonfires) ... not to mention the thousands of bonfires/fireworks your average home owner would display for the kids/family.

It sounds a bit cheezy, but it reminded me of some historic battle ground, as the sky was illuminated dark orange & you could hear fireworks/smell the fires EVERYWHERE!!! .... The good old days!

Souvenir

Bonfire night sounds a bit rough where you come from.

When I was a kid, on Bonfire night the trees were bare and it was cold. From what I saw in Sussex last week, Bonfire parties this year will be* more like tropical beach parties.

<* were, probably, given the time difference>

RobinHood

Hey - Roundhay Park! I'm from your neck of the woods. We went to the organised bonfire at the local golf club yesterday. It was all going really well - kids running around having fun, neighbours and friends mixing and chatting. Then the "hoodies" arrived and started launching lit sparklers into the air at random. One of them landed a few feet from my 3 year old - I promptly stood on it to put it out - to be met with sneers and "dog looks" from the ASBO brigade.

I will miss bonfire night - but not English hoodies, give me Canadian Sk8tr Boyz any day.

Linda P

We lived in Moortown for 5 years and then moved to Brayton, Selby. Where are you from???

Roundhay Park put on great firework displays...

One year some youngsters decided to let off rockets just by us....they were soon escorted from the park...We were very impressed by the security.

Linda

Linda P

[QUOTE=Souvenir]Bonfire night sounds a bit rough where you come from.

What can I say from Wales then lived in Leeds


Linda

willmore

There are "organized" bonfires in different communities.

We had a family orientated bonfire on halloween where familes could go roast marshmallows, hotdogs, play games, etc.....It was arranged by the Oak Bay fire dept and a good time was had by all.

RobinHood

I'm from Dewsbury - "where the girls are rough and the boys are tough."

My buddy used to go to Roundhay's bonfire - always swore by it - said it was a good event. Moortown eh? Bet you've visited the Chained Bull (pub) once or twice

britishvixen21

My family have this tradition where everyone would come to my dads house for a bonfire, fireworks, followed by soup and rolls to warm us all up.

Every year i call to say hi while all the gabble are there, last year when i phoned my Sister in Law answered the phone crying. I was like "what on earth is the matter"

Well the story goes like this:

My brother and Dad has been trying to get the bonfire started and my brother with a couple of brew inside him put a tad too much lighter fluid on the stack, it had apparently become trapped in an air pocket at the bottom. When my dad chucked the match on the fire it went off like hiroshima, shattering the windows in the upstairs of not only my dads house but next door as well, as well as setting off dogs, and car alarms all along the street. There was fire scattered all over the lawn and on the fence LOL

My Dad said that someone must have been looking over him because he said that the fire went right through him but both my brother and him were unhurt not a scratch on them.

My dad is usually very safety concious and had everyone way back so no one else was hurt. At the time i was freaking out all this way away with visions of the toweing inferno and other such movies LOL. But now we all have a good laugh about it, my dad has been dubbed the Firestarter. and we often play the prodigy song to him.

Apparently my dads new wife has banned a bonfire in the back yard LOL