Tragically, its a custom that is dying out in the UK.
It was the event of the year for the kids when I was young in new Zealand...We also called it “Bonfire Night”..
We prepared for the night weeks in advance..like a general prepared for a battle...Operation Overlord had nothing on our strategy...
We would compete for the biggest bonfire etc.. No prize just the satisfaction...
The older kids would set up long thin tree trunks like a tee pee...
Then the little kids would help build it..taking time to play inside...
Broom, old old tires, a guy made with straw, a shirt, pants and boots and held together with 4 inch nails...
(Although we knew about the English practice of “A penny for the Guy” I dont remember anyone doing that in my part of NZ...)
We would work on it for weeks...checking the other bonfires around town as we built ours..ours had to be the biggest... :)
Meanwehile Jiommy On Lee the only Chinese man in town and the only greengrocer, would have ordered lots of fire works ... and sold them all days before Nov 5th...
They came with both Chinese and English written on them...renamed to English names...
to names of the extinct volcanoes in NZ..Mt Eden, Mt Egmont, etc
There were Sparklers that the little kids wrote their names with,
Roman Candles that were long enough to hold onto and run with,
Sky Rockets that the big kids placed into in a big beer bottle and fired into the sky...
Catherine Wheels that the big kids would hammer onto fence posts with a nail..
Jumping Jacks that would chase giggling or crying little kids...
and Bangers, lots of them, that we lit and threw..
Tiny ones, medium ones, they came all tied up together in 2 rows...
Armed with a hammer, nails and a beer bottle..and our crackers in a big brown paper bag, we were set for the night...
We would start at our bonfire, out side of town, and then go into town and visit the others during the evening...
At every bonfire mothers had abundant cocoa for everyone... and sometimes biscuits (cookies)..
Y&es I’ve been in the US for nearly 40 years and I still miss Bonfire Night...