Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

Well its that time of year again.

Which do you prefer? Personally I couldn’t give a naff about Halloween, seems stupid to me to dress up and ponce about extorting sweets while pretending to be frightened about some metaphysical entities. I think it sets a bad example for the children. I prefer a nice tangible political-cultural controversy, one that provides a historical context and a lesson for the kids. Plus, the food is a lot better than Halloween and it’s is too American for me.

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

All Hallow's Eve has its own historical context that has been corrupted by commercialism and America.

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

I love Halloween, its much more of an event than bonfire night ever was, whole neighbourhoods get decorated, kids get all exited at the dressup and makeup, and besides, I like my fireworks on a warm July evening, not on some godawful freezing miserable november night.

Kids, Candy, Dressup, its all good with me. I'm not looking forward to when my kids have outgrown it. Theres more than a few houses near me where the adults have clearly not outgrown it yet... they must spend a fortune on decoration. One collegue of mine even has a smoke machine just for halloween:ohmy:

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

Where's your spirit man? Nothing better than the smell of sulphur mingled with sausages grease as long as you have a small flask of whiskey in in your anorak pocket.

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

But my kids dont even like the smell of daddys medicine, never mind the taste:sneaky:

Besides, if that floats your boat you can do that here in July, and still feel your face by the end of the evening:D

Of course, there is a good chance here that at the end of an evenings trick or treating if you missed a bit of costume coverage your kids might lose an appendage to frostbite, but they think its worth the risk for a boatload of sweeties from strangers...

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

Just give them a few sparklers. Of course there is the small chance I've romanticised the evening a tad, but still, hot jacket potatoes and dodgy fireworks while standing around a big bonfire? Sounds good to me.

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

We do that in our backyard all the time, dont need a special day for it.

Of course, having been asymillated its mostly smores and hotdogs around the fire rather than spuds.... still its all good clean fun.

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

I love Halloween. Always seem to pick up some new female prospects on the Toronto party scene.

Don't half miss a good old bonfire though- although these are in decline in the UK as well.

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

Halloween is of course, crass and commercialised, but having kids now, it is an excuse to dress them in cute costumes and indulge in a sugar rush. However, for us, Guy Fawkes is the bigger night. We have a BYOF party with a good crowd, lots of whizz bangs, a fire in an old oil drum, chilli and some booze. It's become quite the pillar of the social calendar.;)

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

Nice. Do you have a Guy?

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

I voted for bonfire night but I think that mght have been more from nostalgia than anything.

I've considered throwing a bonfire party too - however the family thought it was strange to eat baked beans, mushrooms and tomatoes for breakfast, so I suspect burning an effigy on top of the brush pile might send them over the edge.

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

i like both in equal measures!

love halloween because of the amount of scantily clad women cutting about nightclubs and its completely acceptable haha

back home for bonfire night we got a couple of beers, a big fire going down the beach and BYOF, letting them off long into the night (or until someone grassed to the fuzz that a group of "yoofs" were having fun)

looking forward to a Canadian halloween though....i guess they don't do much for Guy Fawkes or 4th July?

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

Yes an interesting debate...when I lived in the UK, I would say Bonfire night hands down...as you say Halloween is very "American" and I agree it was far too "American" for my liking, and I felt it was encroaching on British history and culture by becoming a bigger thing than Guy Fawkes night! which used to really annoy me. When I was a kid (im 42 now) Halloween was hardly even heard of, but I have some truly fantastic childhood memories of great Bonfire nights! and I felt it taught us as kids about our history in an interesting way.

However....now I live in Canada...i am the immigrant so I do as the Romans do and fit in with their traditions, last year my then girlfriend even got me into carving a pumpkin!! Now I like the excuse to dress up as some character (not even on a horror theme) I live in Peterborough ON and the downtown bar scene the Saturday before halloween is a lot of fun, with people dressed as different characters and getting into "character" the last couple of years have been a great night out!

With all that said I still miss Bonfire night....that much so, last year I pesuaded a friend (Canadian friend) to hold one at his house, I built a "guy" and he invited a few people. Wow.....we had a great evening....I was the only Brit there, but everyone really got into it....and wanted to know all the history of why Brits burn this Guy Fawkes effergy evey year, let fireworks off and eat baked potatoes bangers and onion gravy!! It was such a sucess my friend has thrown his place open as the Guy Fawkes venue again this year! providing I build the guy! there has even been talk at our local pub from locals there (as far back as two months ago) asking if my friend was going to have the Guy Fawkes night again!

So I guess I enjoy the best of both worlds! A great British tradition sucessfully introduced to a part of Canada! Its a busy two weekends on the bounce!

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

Bonfire night here - but have to remember remember (hah) to buy the fireworks before the shops shut in Halloween !

Re: Halloween or Bonfire Night?
 

I think you can buy them starting on the 25th. Don't forget to get your permit before you go to the shop. Try this website for wholesale MSRP prices and then go and haggle at the shops, you should be able to get a lot off. :)

http://mysticaldistributing.com/salesPricelists.aspx


Fireworks Permit