Bonfire

I've always felt uneasy about the practice of burning the guy. OK, it's the effigy of a man who tried to blow up the Palace of Westminster 400 years ago (or was he just the fall-guy?) but even so, it strikes me as a bit medievel.

Here in Sussex, we take our bonfire celebrations seriously. There are bonfires that take place throughout October and November. Hastings times its fireworks night to take place on the Saturday after 14 October, the date of a little skirmish that happened near here in 1066. A huge pile of wooden palettes is built on the seafront, about ten yards high, and a guy is placed on top. The bonfire is set alight on the night, and a torchlight procession of bonfire societies from all over Sussex parades through the town - one so long it takes an hour to go past any single point. Then the fireworks start. I won't try to describe how big the fireworks are - I'll just say that a few years ago they were visible in Dieppe and the French coastguard scrambled their lifeboats as they thought they were distress flares from a ship in trouble.

The finale is the burning of this years' special effigy. This is where a hated national or local figure is burned in effigy on it's own special bonfire. This is the scary bit. Two years ago the Jerwood Art Gallery was burned. Last year bankers got the treatment. This year it was effigies of hoodies and the underclass who got the blame for this summers riots.

All good clean fun? Probably. But add a few burning crosses or swastikas to the scene and then see what you think.