…the fifth of November. Thursday night was Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night as it’s more commonly called. Just one train stop from Sussex University is a town called Lewes, which also happens to host the largest celebration in Britain of this bizarre holiday. People travel from far and wide just to come to Lewes and experience the spectacle, so I’m sure you can guess where I went Thursday night. Most people head into Lewes early to beat the train station rush, but I had class till 6pm and consequently had to suffer through the long lines. In the end, it was for the best because Sophie and I met some new people whilst waiting and ended up hanging with them for most of the night. If you don’t already know, Guy Fawkes Night is a commemoration of the downfall of a Catholic plot to blow up Parliament. The “Gunpowder Plot” was discovered on November 5th 1605 and the Catholic conspirators (Guy Fawkes included) were subsequently tried and executed. As a result, it has become tradition on the 5th of November to light fireworks and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. The town of Lewes takes this tradition quite seriously.
They have these individual societies that dress up in different uniforms and parade through the streets with torches. When we attempted to cross the street during the parade we were met with swinging torches and evil glares.
they also burn 17 crosses in memory of the seventeen Protestant martyrs
After the parades, we made our way up this enormous hill where a view of the entire town awaited. From here we watched the fireworks show which everyone was obsessed with, but I have to admit that it couldn’t even compare to the fireworks we have back home. It was still fun though, and the view was amazing considering that we were practically eye level with the show because of how high up we were. You could also see the various bonfires of different societies scattered across Lewes. Hence the name “Bonfire Night,” it’s there that they burn the effigies of Guy Fawkes and other disliked individuals. An effigy of Pope Paul V always gets burned, and in 2001 the event gained a lot of media coverage due to the burning of an Osama bin Laden effigy.
In addition to Bonfire Night in general being an all-around strange affair, I had a few strange it’s-a-small-world-after-all experiences that night. For one, I ran into a girl who went to Camp Blue Star with me when I was younger. She just happened to be friends with the guys we met while waiting for the train. Apparently, she studies at the same university as me. Secondly, after successfully descending the giant hill and while waiting to meet up with my friend Sam who is from Lewes and was having a party at his family’s house, I somehow started chatting with this guy who happened to have worked at Camp Barney Medintz and knew a lot of the same people as me. So yay for Jewish camp connections! I think it’s especially funny that these chance run-ins occurred on a night when the nature of the celebration entails burning effigies of the Pope.
Anyways, I guess I got my Halloween afterall!
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