Roman Candles

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road 

This Bonfire night weekend was spent standing outside a firework display, stealing fireworks and then going home to eat burgers, apple pie and playing with sparklers. Dad told me about a tradition that I'd never even heard of before called 'penny for the Guy'...

For many families, Guy Fawkes Night became a domestic celebration, and children often congregated on street corners, accompanied by their own effigy of Guy Fawkes. This was sometimes ornately dressed and sometimes a barely recognisable bundle of rags stuffed with whatever filling was suitable. A survey found that in 1981 about 23 percent of Sheffield schoolchildren made Guys, sometimes weeks before the event. Collecting money was a popular reason for their creation, the children taking their effigy from door to door, or displaying it on street corners. But mainly, they were built to go on the bonfire. Lately, however, the custom of begging for a "penny for the Guy" has almost completely disappeared. (Wiki)

Apparently it's England's real version of Trick or Treating. Depressingly we had not one single trick or treater and no old school penny for the Guy-ers. What is the world coming to?