Guy Fawkes' Night

We went to celebrate Guy Fawkes' Night at the local Scout hut. B1 asked me if I thought it was the best £7.00 (the cost of the tickets) I had ever spent and that was even before we got there.

The Scout hut is in the lanes so there is NOWHERE to park as all the lanes are one car wide. A field nearby was set up as a car park by the organisers and the walk to the hut was beautifully lit with lights in the trees.

This was B1's Guy his group made; apparently Guy Fawkes was actually a green alien. Nothing really says party more than a group of small boys making an effigy to burn. There was a canteen open selling hot dogs, hot chips and, of course, bean jar. The Bumble Bee'rs were upset as they were not selling sparklers but I was secretly pleased about this as small children waving large sparklers (not the type we would put on a cake in Australia) about would result in a trip to A&E I think.

All of the 'Guys' were placed on the bonfire, which was ceremoniously lit with a blazing torch at 6.30pm. The Bumble Bee'rs were so excited. They have been dreaming about Guy Fawkes' Night for weeks, when they haven't been talking about Halloween that is.

It was quite windy and the flames were being blown up high into the night sky. After about half an hour the bonfire had burnt down enough for the fireworks to be lit.

The firework display went for about 40 minutes. You can see in this photo how windy it was as the fireworks are getting blown off course, so to speak. From where we were watching you could also see other displays at two different venues at the same time so it was as if we were surrounded by fireworks. The evening ended by 7.30pm.

Australia does not celebrate Guy Fawkes' Night anymore and the general public is not allowed to purchase fireworks. The fireworks go on sale in Guernsey the day after Halloween and are taken off the shelves on Guy Fawkes' Night. People are supposed to stop setting them off after Guy Fawkes' Night but we usually have a few more nights of it as people use up their supplies. Our neighbours across the road really go to town and it is akin to a war zone. They had some that were reminiscent of a missile launch as seen on the nightly news.

I think this is my favourite time of year in Guernsey with Halloween, Guy Fawkes' Night, Christmas markets, school Christmas plays, late night shopping (there is no late night shopping in Guernsey at any other time of year but the few weeks in December prior to Christmas), it is getting colder, the fire is lit nightly and the kids are on excitement overload as we skip through the weeks from event to event in the build up to Christmas.

I am so glad that Guernsey still celebrates Guy Fawkes', what a fabulous night!