A Friday.
As far as I could tell, there was no other special reason to hold this event, except that the host, Tom's friend Stephen, felt like it. His grandfather owns a fairly large in-town property, 10-15 acres, and let Stephen and his friends have a big fire. There are pool parties fairly often at Stephen's parents' house, but they could not have expected it to be as warm last night as it was. It was really a little hot for the burning of bons.
We learned in the Hobbit Club that "bonfire" is not French, "good fire," but Middle English, "Bone Fire." They would burn bones at the summer solstice to keep away dragons.
“to keep away dragons. “
Good to know.