Bonfire/Guy Fawkes Night

TastyReuben

Nosh 'n' Splosh
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We've got a Thanksgiving topic going, so I thought I'd ask our British members (and anyone else, really) if they do anything special, especially in the way of food, for Bonfire Night (Nov 5th).

We usually just do up a menu of a few British favorites, like some kind of meat pie, or maybe shepherd's/cottage pie, British beer, maybe banoffee pie for afters, and we always have a brush pile out back to burn, collected over the Spring and Summer, so it's a bit of a laid-back GF night.

Anyone else?
 
Not really - even back in the day when the kids were little & we had firework displays in the back garden there wasn't anything special in the way of food. The only thing I recall is from my childhood - potatoes baked in the embers of the bonfire. So I suppose baked potatoes would be traditional.
 
It was baked potatoes for us too.

Bonfire night isn't what it used to be, few families now buy their own fireworks, the bonfire parties at local pubs or Scout groups are gone because of safety rules and public liability insurance so now you only really get large commerial displays. Also, Haloween has become so much more commercialised in recent years, following the American model of dressing up and having parties... there is so much more retail potential in Haloween than in Bonfire night so it has been pushed by the big stores.
 
Here's a funny little thing - BBC Good Food website has a little section on Bonfire Night foods, and there are several mentions of...hot dogs. 🤔

Maybe sausages in a roll rather than American style hotdogs would have been traditional. The sausages would also be cooked in the fire. Not sure now - its a long time since I attended a bonfire night event!
 
It was baked potatoes for us too.

Bonfire night isn't what it used to be, few families now buy their own fireworks, the bonfire parties at local pubs or Scout groups are gone because of safety rules and public liability insurance so now you only really get large commerial displays. Also, Haloween has become so much more commercialised in recent years, following the American model of dressing up and having parties... there is so much more retail potential in Haloween than in Bonfire night so it has been pushed by the big stores.
I find Halloween appalling. In our local supermarket the main promotional isle is given over to Hallowene junk. The first third is full of tooth rotting, obesity causing confectionery, packaged to be irresistible to children. The middle section is lurid costumes, so inexpensive that I can only conclude that slave labour was involved in their production. Come November 1st these will no doubt be consigned to landfill, along with the single use plastics in the third section - ghoulish masks, devils horns and severed limbs. All perfectly acceptable ways to profit from childhood obesity and killing the planet, whilst the relatively harmless fun of a bonfire gets banned on the grounds of health and safety. The return of Guy Fawkes would be most welcome.
 
I find Halloween appalling. In our local supermarket the main promotional isle is given over to Hallowene junk. The first third is full of tooth rotting, obesity causing confectionery, packaged to be irresistible to children. The middle section is lurid costumes, so inexpensive that I can only conclude that slave labour was involved in their production. Come November 1st these will no doubt be consigned to landfill, along with the single use plastics in the third section - ghoulish masks, devils horns and severed limbs. All perfectly acceptable ways to profit from childhood obesity and killing the planet, whilst the relatively harmless fun of a bonfire gets banned on the grounds of health and safety. The return of Guy Fawkes would be most welcome.

I couldn't agree more. Its obscene.
 
You 2 would really be appalled at the Halloween stores that pop up in September in empty strip mall stores here.
I love them! We have one in town now, "The Spirit Of Halloween," and we'll make a point to walk through once before it disappears.
 
Our next door neighbour while I was growing up was a source of entertainment. He would be at the pub or somewhere then about 8 or 9 when it was dark he would drive into his driveway, open his boot/ trunk and there were boxes of fireworks, all the kids within 100 metres were there. Watching as he let them off to kids that were poor and couldn't afford them. A great nights fun watching explosion after explosion. This same guy was good to me and my brothers growing up. He drove a big V8 and used to take us for drives. That got me hooked on V8s. Later when my kids were growing up I used to do the same. We always had the best fireworks,lol.
Here now you can only buy in a two day window. They are trying to stop it.

Russ
 
I find Halloween appalling. In our local supermarket the main promotional isle is given over to Hallowene junk. The first third is full of tooth rotting, obesity causing confectionery, packaged to be irresistible to children. The middle section is lurid costumes, so inexpensive that I can only conclude that slave labour was involved in their production. Come November 1st these will no doubt be consigned to landfill, along with the single use plastics in the third section - ghoulish masks, devils horns and severed limbs. All perfectly acceptable ways to profit from childhood obesity and killing the planet, whilst the relatively harmless fun of a bonfire gets banned on the grounds of health and safety. The return of Guy Fawkes would be most welcome.
Can I give that a double like?

Do you remember a few years ago the supermarkets and card industry tried to invent "Grandparents Day" so they could sell more flowers, chocolates and tatty gifts? Fortunately everyone seemed to see through it and it never caught on.
 
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