"Bonfire night in Rye" Topic

Where else can you go to see Roman soldiers, Captain Hook, several Captain Jack Sparrows, redcoats from the Zulu War and modern cyber-punks all marching to the sound of drums? Go to Rye, in Sussex, or any of the Sussex towns in October and November every year. Thousands of torches are lit and paraded through the streets at night but there are no pitchforks and no-one is shouting: "Kill the monster". Frankenstein's creation is quite safe. Ohhh… and there are fireworks, lots and lots of fireworks!

Yes, it is Bonfire Night in the UK and – just once a year – the English know how to let their hair down and go 'mardi-gras' to celebrate Bonfire Night on the south coast. Events like this are held all over Sussex and Kent to celebrate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot (1605 but memories are long down there) or the martyrdom of Protestants in Lewes (1556 but some memories are even longer).

YouTube link

Wiki explains the tradition fully here: link

Today it is a family event to raise money for charities and still one of the best nights out. And if you like it enough you can go to another nearby town and see it all over again on the next weekend or the one after that. Bonfire Night? More like a bonfire two months!

Barry

More about the Hawkhurst gang here: link

Their final battle was in Goudhurst in the 1740s and NOT at Hawkhurst, as I said in the film. Plenty of inspiration for a smugglers versus Revenue men skirmish.

Barry

You cousins across the pond ever pull a Wicker Man routine on Bonfire Night?;-)

@mjkerner:
Various 'Guy Fawkes' substitutes have been used. One year they burned the Crazy Frog (of ringtone fame) while another year it was Donald Trump. Lewes regularly burn the Pope but (as described in my video) that is Lewes for you. They are a bit hardline there.

Barry