Remember remember sometime around the beginning of November

Soldato
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With all the eco stuff going on I'm suprised no one has brought up fireworks yet. It's basically throwing litter in to the sky and no clue where it's going to land.

But as said above, it's about time they stopped selling them to the public and only allowed them at large public events tbh. I live quite close to the local football club and they are always setting them off, gets old after a while.
 
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Man of Honour
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I grew up in the 1970's and Guy Fawkes night was huge back then. I think it has dwindled and evolved for several reasons. Because of so many injuries it became harder to buy fireworks and socially less acceptable for local communities to put on their own events. When I was a kid all the parents in the surrounding streets would collect wood and pile it into a bonfire. We would pool our families fireworks and then on 5th November every year everyone would go to the field, set fire to the bonfire and let off the fireworks. Nowadays if you did that the fire brigade would be called. So people had little choice but to start going to (expensive and less fun) organised events.

For that reason, and also because of the increasing influence of American TV I think people started to 'celebrate' Halloween more than Fireworks Night. More recently cultural changes mean that Diwali is celebrated around the same time as well. So there has been a shift from a traditional British festival to a mix of other cultures and less of a focus on that one night. I'll always look back very fondly to my childhood for community bonfires. I loved those events and they were special in a way that a paid event and Trick or Treat can't be for me.
 
Soldato
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That's one thing I'm glad I don't hear anymore. WW2 outside my house for 3 weeks and having to pick up used fireworks from my back garden.

I'm enjoying the piece and quiet now during these times :)
 
Soldato
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I grew up in the 1970's and Guy Fawkes night was huge back then. I think it has dwindled and evolved for several reasons. Because of so many injuries it became harder to buy fireworks and socially less acceptable for local communities to put on their own events. When I was a kid all the parents in the surrounding streets would collect wood and pile it into a bonfire. We would pool our families fireworks and then on 5th November every year everyone would go to the field, set fire to the bonfire and let off the fireworks. Nowadays if you did that the fire brigade would be called. So people had little choice but to start going to (expensive and less fun) organised events.

For that reason, and also because of the increasing influence of American TV I think people started to 'celebrate' Halloween more than Fireworks Night. More recently cultural changes mean that Diwali is celebrated around the same time as well. So there has been a shift from a traditional British festival to a mix of other cultures and less of a focus on that one night. I'll always look back very fondly to my childhood for community bonfires. I loved those events and they were special in a way that a paid event and Trick or Treat can't be for me.
yes it was massive in the 70s (cough late 70s) we backed onto land (times when they didnt build on every sqrae inch) so we would have the bonfire ,big build up of chumping ,guarding your stash of wood ,sometimes going on raids (ie stealing other bonfires wood) but there was a lot more private bonfires back then.
like everything else going from big event to non event ,we even had religious references on the Xmas town lights back then but thats another subject (again this is west yorkshire im talking about)
 

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Soldato
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There are ample "quiet" fireworks which are ideal for family / garden displays - Ive used them a lot over the years, they have the added advantage of nothing being discarded in the air to fall back on peoples roofs. cars, gardens etc.
 
Caporegime
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There are ample "quiet" fireworks which are ideal for family / garden displays - Ive used them a lot over the years, they have the added advantage of nothing being discarded in the air to fall back on peoples roofs. cars, gardens etc.

Yeah but that requires consideration for others. You maniac!
 
Soldato
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Given fireworks are simply a visual and audio experience, why can't families/freinds huddle around their PC and watch a digital show in the dark and not disturb my sleep at gone 2200? ;)
 
Man of Honour
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61 years old and never been to a bonfire night (that I know of) or bought a firework.
I have built bonfires because we also had Dens inside them but I never turned up for the burning.
Last night I played at a pub while the bonfire was burning outside, at about 00:30am two fire engines turned up so for the first time in my life I watched a bonfire but it was being doused by hunky fireman.
 
Soldato
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When I was a lad bonfire night happened on 5th November and apart from the odd rogue scrote the fireworks were set off on that night.

So why and when did it change that anytime from Halloween to mid November was Guy Fawkes time?

It was a big deal when I was a kid in the 70's too, part of every household that kids used to get old clothes then stuff them full of newspaper and make a "guy" which ended up on the bonfire on bonfire night, let off the fireworks too. I can remember looking out the bedroom window upstairs and every garden in the street had their own celebrations. Even the town had its own bonfire societies and people used to parade down the street now only Lewes does it every year and I get the impression there are people who would wish that would disappear too. I used to love bonfire night it was second only to xmas to me.

It started declining from the 80's onwards when Halloween and Trick or Trick started to become a thing, never heard of it before other than the odd american movie when the first kids came round I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to do.

Its partly due to health and safety do-gooders wanting to ban fireworks and its very not PC to celebrate the death of traitors, it might offend Catholics as well.

Much safer to transfer the tradition to the purely fantasy Halloween instead. No-one can get offended then, at least no-one who matters.
 
Soldato
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Doesnt help my 2 year old sleep, regardless of how much I myself “man up”

:rolleyes:

If it was one night, you might let it slip, but its been a sodding week of non stop idiots.

Personally, I feel that consumer fireworks should be as close to silent as possible. You want bangs, go to a professional display that haven’t aimed the sodding mortars at my windows... yes two this year have hit the windows.
The world doesn't revolve around you and your life choices unfortunately.

Maybe find a place to live a bit quieter if it bothers you that much.
 
Soldato
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The world doesn't revolve around you and your life choices unfortunately.

Maybe find a place to live a bit quieter if it bothers you that much.
Having kids may be a "life choice", but it is a choice without which there wouldn't be life...

Maybe try to find some empathy at the bottom of your well and not the disdain you seem quick to throw around.
 
Soldato
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Having kids may be a "life choice", but it is a choice without which there wouldn't be life...

Maybe try to find some empathy at the bottom of your well and not the disdain you seem quick to throw around.
I have two kids, we live in an area where Diwali and Bonfire night are both celebrated with loud fireworks, sometimes into the early hours, and they enjoy them until they go to sleep.

It's like people who move next door to Brands Hatch and then complain because they hear racing car noises, I have no time for people like that. Move somewhere else if it's a problem.
 
Soldato
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Silent firework displays could work, in the same way that silent discos did/do. Everyone plugs headphones into their mobile phones and connect to the display's wifi to hear the fizzes and bangs.
 
Caporegime
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Silent firework displays could work, in the same way that silent discos did/do. Everyone plugs headphones into their mobile phones and connect to the display's wifi to hear the fizzes and bangs.

Maybe they could do the NUS style jazz hands/silent clapping while they're at it too... :D

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