Bonfire Night and Halloween

A hearty greeting of "Happy Guy Fawkes Day" from a dear American friend has prompted this post. That's not a greeting we Brits tend to use, but it's well-meant and perfectly understandable given the American custom of saying "Happy Halloween"; again, that is not something you often hear in the UK. Before anyone concludes that we're a miserable bunch, we do say "Happy Christmas", "Happy Easter", "Happy New Year" and "Happy Birthday"!

The Wikipedia article about Guy Fawkes Day, or as we more commonly call it, Bonfire Night, says "...another old celebration, Halloween, has lately increased in popularity, and according to some writers, may threaten the continued observance of 5 November." Halloween (sometimes spelt Hallowe'en to give us more of a clue that it is the eve of All Hallows' or All Saints' Day) is often seen as an American import that has grown massively in popularity in recent years. In my childhood hardly anyone carved pumpkins, held Halloween parties or did trick-or-treat, but now nearly all children will do those things. One thing that intrigues me given my evangelical Christian formative years is that Halloween seems to be an acceptable celebration in the much more strongly evangelical US, whereas in many of our churches it was (and still is to some extent) a no-no seen as having heavy pagan connotations, to be replaced if possible by a church-based festival with nary a witch or ghoul in sight. Perhaps there is as just much variety of opinion in America, and I should be wary of seeing attitudes there as quite so monolithic.

Anyway, going back to the Wikipedia comment, a few years ago I too thought that the much more commercial Halloween might displace our traditional English Bonfire Night. Thankfully, this does not seem to have happened. There is some mixing of the two, but by and large they now occupy different spaces. Halloween is for family and friends, though with quite a strong commercial input. Bonfire Night is much more village and town-based, with huge bonfires and spectacular firework displays. If Halloween has displaced anything, it might be the family fireworks "display" in which Dad (yes, usually Dad) got everyone to stand back while he lit a couple of rockets and a soggy Catherine wheel which always failed to rotate properly on its nail on the shed. This is a good thing; ten quid spent on tickets for a public display is much better value than the same spent on fireworks for the back garden, as well as being a lot safer. As for Halloween, I have no problem with the witches and scary stuff, but I do find it hard to see trick-or-treating in a favourable light, being as it is the demanding of money with menaces. So my vote goes for Bonfire Night - burning the effigy of a papist... oh, maybe I'm being a bit inconsistent here!