I
hadn't realised, until I read the programme issued by the Hastings Borough Bonfire
Society, that all this
November 5th junketing derives from James I's decree in 1605 that the foiling
of Catesby's plot to blow up Parliament was to be celebrated annually for ever
after. Why the good people of Sussex in particular, should have taken it
up with such alacrity, and still use the occasion each year for torchlight
processions, bonfires and fireworks, still remains a mystery.
Hastings, of course, is not the
same as elsewhere, and instead of the November 5th date the townsfolk have
chosen to junket at the end of Hastings Week - thus linking the commemoration
of the famous battle of 1066 with that of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. It's
always struck me as a bit curious that the Hastings population should celebrate the 1066
battle - it's rather as if the locals of Waterloo had annual festivities to
celebrate a foreign victory. The Gunpowder Plot was another matter - if
you were a Protestant, that is. And anyway, if the king tells you to have
a party, who's going to protest?
So each year at the end of
Hastings Week we have the torchlight procession round the town, in which a
panoply of bonfire societies parade in full fig to the sound of many drums.
It's an eerie occasion, because of the dark and the torchlight and the
strange outfits of the various societies. Skulls and Victorian undertaker
costumes and strange face-paint abounded last night. Most curious of all
were the members of the Burgess Hill Bonfire Society, who were
dressed like Aztec Indians. Not sure what that was about, but it added a
touch of the exotic.
We'd been kindly invited to a
party in a flat in Pelham Place, right opposite the fireworks on the front.
The display was pretty amazing. James I would have been proud of
it, I'm sure.
Antony Mair
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| Fireworks seen from Pelham Place |
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