To me bonfire night is a mixed bag, I hate it because of the loud fireworks and the stress it causes animals. But I also like the warm bonfires on a chilly evening, jacket potatoes and hot chocolate. I’ve put all my animals to bed early today. Filled all their abodes with straw and tried to bed them down before the fireworks start. As I’m typing I can hear a few going off. As a kid I loved watching fireworks but as you get older, wiser and I think more progressive as a society, I think do we really need loud bangs and flashing lights that bring misery to animals, people with anxiety and those who have to look after said animals and humans. Maybe just a garden party with a chiminea kicking out heat would suffice?
A Facebook memory popped up on my screen today from five years ago. I went with Mally, my sister and brother in law to York on the 5th of November. Now as everyone knows, it is bonfire night/Guy Fawkes night in celebration of the fact Guy Fawkes was prevented from blowing up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 in the gunpowder plot. So because of this we place a guy on the bonfire. However, in York they never put Guy on the bonfire as Guy Fawkes was born and raised in York. It is said his ghost makes an appearance on bonfire night and he sprints from the pub he was born in over the road to the York minster.
Anyway, five years ago we decided to visit the pub in which Guy Fawkes was born and on the very night his ghostly spirit is said to appear. Unsurprisingly it’s called The Guy Fawkes Inn. It’s a very old and traditional pub and it was packed. We sat in the beer garden and there was a very interesting mural on the outside wall.
Anyway, as with all my “ghost” stories, we sat, we drank beer and we waited. But no sign of old Guy.
In the country not in the country 