Guy Fawkes Night and other weird traditions

4 Nov , 2014 Uncategorized

Can we just take a minute and talk about Guy Fawkes Night/Bonfire Night or whatever you prefer to call it?
How weird is it that an entire country have dedicated a whole day to celebrate a Guy (haha) who wanted to blow their parliament into pieces?
Since the day is coming up again I figured that it was time for some research and then I found a whole bunch of stuff that the English like to celebrate, I barely know where to start!

Straw Bear Day for an example is an old English tradition held on the 7th of January and it is a bit similar to Halloween, people dress up and knock on doors and receive a gift.
The difference between these two evenings is that it’s not kids dressing up in scary costumes this time it is grown men dressed in straw costumes covering their whole body and they knock on doors, perform a little dance and usually receive a can of beer afterwards. This day is believed to be traditional start of agricultural year in England but why the bear costumes is still unclear to me. 

Another tradition that I’ve come across is the annual Worm Charming Championships held in a village called Willaston.
It all basically started with someone being really good at finding worms that her or she used for fishing, so good that he made a himself a local celebrity dong this. After the local fame took off and other people heard about him they wanted to challenge the “Master of Worm Charming” and this became what we today call  the Worm Charming Championships.

Last but not least we’ve got the great Bonfire Night celebrated in the name of Guy Fawkes.
Guy Fawkes was part of a group that was planning to blow up the Houses of Parliament and killing a whole lot of politicians and other important people. Mr. Fawkes was not the big brains behind the plot, his job was to guard the explosives that was hidden under the building and then be in charge of actually lighting the match that would set of the big boom.
He was arrested a couple of hours before the match was lit and the English are now celebrating his failed attempt of blowing up the Parliament accompanied with  fireworks and bonfires.

At the end of my little research I realised that the English might be a little crazy sometimes but in a good way I’m not one to complain. Who would say no to a little extra celebration every now and then? Just be safe with the fireworks 🙂

xx,
Kim