English IS colourful!

As many of you know, I LIKE writing and I enjoy teaching writing too.
Yet, many students tell me English is a boring, dry, dull, grey, lifeless language compared with others such as Asian languages.
Whoa! Back the truck up, dull, boring, lifeless?? Never!
They have obviously never read Keats, Shelly or Wordsworth, who you ask. Well, what Shakespeare "Shall I compare thee to a summer day, thou art more lovely and more temperate."

Ok, lets cut to the chase, most of this criticism comes from IELTS candidates or those using English for business or academic purposes, which is fair comment, to a point.
Certainly Chinese IS very prosaic, beautiful and, well rambling, whereas English gets straight to the point, but, you need to compare Apples with Apples, as I said before.

I am sure that the instruction manual for the Chinese space programme doesn't contain too much poetry and I am equally certain that some English poetry is also very beautiful.
It is just that most of those studying English have suddenly switched from a diet of Chinese prose to academic English, the contrast is stark and so it is hard to make a comparison.

Anyway, we might come back to that debate another day because, any language, if you know how to use it, can be wonderfully descriptive, and that is part of the problem here I feel.
Many s/s simply have not been taught how to use English language to its most beautiful fullest.
So lets look at how you can make YOUR writing a little more colourful by using...... yes, colours!

Everyone soon learns the basic colours, red, blue green yellow, ho hum, or a modifier such as pale, light, dark, *yawn*.
Can't we be a little more inventive and adventurous than that?
Yes we can!
Of course there are the paint palette standards like, violet, magenta, crimson, aqua and teal, but even those are dull compared with what we can do if we think about it.

What about "flame, fire engine, ruby, blood," instead of just RED, [remember Bon Jovi; "Blood Red nails on your fingertips." or "ice, sky, sea, saphire or electric" instead of just BLUE.
[Electric blue is a fashion colour for women's underwear or sleep wear, looks great in silk or satin]

So you can see we are borrowing from nature or things around us which most people can understand and relate to.
We can also use other words as "colours, why not, mushroom, eggshell, you already know ORANGE, but try lime, lemon, apple, avocado [for green,] plum, grape, peach, apricot, and well yes, why not even banana! Instead of just BROWN, look to nature, teak, walnut, chestnut.

Now we have our "new" colours, lets add some modifiers, instead of blood, lets try fresh blood, or dried blood. How about "straw" [for yellow or as a hair colour] and "dried straw?" See the difference?
We can use "BURNT" with some colours, burnt orange, burnt yellow which suggests a sort of brown shade to the colour.

Faded is another variation of "light" but thinking of clothes and laundry, why not "washed out blue [or any colour.]
Sand, marble, ivory, bone, alabaster, are ways to make boring whites and greys a little more interesting as are gold, silver, steel, brushed aluminum, or rust!
Thirsty? What about coffee, chocolate or cream, all different ways to liven up your writing.

Really, it is only limited by your own imagination, sure, most of these are in use and well understood, but don't let that stop you.
Any language grows and stays vital and alive because creative people add to it, other people like it and use it and so it spreads to become common usage.

For example I recently saw "Kiss of Death Blue" on a tech forum which was describing that blue screen we all know and hate when our WINDOWS software crashes or freezes!
To my own friends and family I talk about "A typical Beijing Blue Sky Summer's Day" which they and most people in Beijing would recognise as that washed out blue grey stuff we get here.

So, now you are asking: "But wouldn't that confuse people, make it harder for them to read?"
Well, personally, I don't think so. Why?
Think of a book you really, really enjoyed, one that you started and couldn't put down until you had finished it. It was great!

Later, they release a movie you have to see it because the book was so great, yes?
But the movie sucked; "nothing like the book" you wail, despite the multi million dollars of Special Effects and computerisation a big disappointment. Why?

Currently, no computer, no SFX can come even close to producing 1/10 of what your MIND and imagination is capable of
Therefore,a book of "JUST WORDS" gives your mind so much room to play and create, build YOUR OWN world.
Maybe we all read the same book but have a different "take" or idea.
But the movie, it is all laid out for you, stark naked, nothing really to think about or imagine. So, you are disappointed.

Same with your writing, as long as you are NOT writing a sales contract, business plan or academic IELTS essay [to a point!] then it doesn't hurt to leave your reader room for their mind to play with your words.
Which is frighteningly similar to what I say about speaking in English, don't try to get everything perfect, just open your mouth or in this case, pick up your pen, and go for it.
Who knows, you might be surprised and find a word or expression you used becomes common English!
Good luck!

Festivals

Rather than be boring and start at with New year or Christmas we are beginning with Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday. If you missed it, there is a "CALENDAR" at the top of the site so you can jump to which ever festival takes your interest.
These descriptions are factually correct, I have just simplified them a lot to make it easier to understand. If you wanted more detail or complex discussion try Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Shrove Tuesday

Do you know what a pancake is?
Have you heard of Pancake Day Festival?
No, then don't be too worried because today probably many younger native English speakers are not familiar with it either.
However, SHROVE Tuesday, to give it its proper name, is a British festival that can be related to religion and on that day we celebrate by eating pancakes.

Why?
Well to answer that we need to dig a bit deeper.
It is all tied up in a thing called LENT, and no, it has nothing to do with borrowing something or letting someone use your pen or MP4.
Lent is a special Christian tradition, and in simple terms it means stopping having luxuries for a certain time, and some foods are counted as luxuries.
Lent is a lead up of about 47 days before Easter, which is one of the holiest and solemn of our celebrations, and one I will talk about next.

Now, to understand why anyone would want to do this we need to look at ourselves.
Although different cultures have different ideas as to what is acceptable and not, most of us agree that cheating, lying, stealing and being rude or unkind to others are not ideal activities, but hey, we are only human and we are not perfect.
So what can we do?
Well, the Christians have a good answer, they go to Church and ask their God to forgive them.
They also set themselves a punishment for their bad behaviour, which, is called Lent.
So yes, Lent is a way Christians punish themselves for the bad things they did.
They stop luxuries from their life for 47 days and just live a basic, simple life and think about how they can be better people.
Ok, so why pancakes?

To answer that we need first to look at what makes a pancake, things like, milk, cream, eggs, fat, sugar and often some sort of sweet sauce. These are luxury foods so Christians will cut them from their diet.
Second, we need to jump back a few hundred years to the days when refrigerators and supermarkets didn't exist..
People would probably have most of those ingredients in their kitchen, they were part of daily life, but if they didn't use them for 47 days, you can imagine the smell from rotten eggs, and bad milk.

So on the last day BEFORE Lent, the housewife would combine all her milk, eggs etc and use them all up in making pancakes. I guess she could have made something else, but pancakes it was.
Actually, the pancake had a head start in being the first choice as it was round, and as such thought to bring good luck and togetherness to the family. Isn't that the idea of Tang Yuan or round sweet dumplings in China at the end of Spring Festival?

As well as eating pancakes, there are often games and activities arranged for that day.
One competition is “pancake tossing” where people cook pancakes and then turn them over to cook the other side by throwing the pancake up in the air to flip it and catching it back into the pan.
Sounds easy but it is a skill that needs practice, try it sometime.

Perhaps the best known is “Pancake racing” where [usually women] have to run a short race while they toss the pancakes a certain number of times. Obviously the winner is the one who crosses the finish line first with the pancake still in the pan!
Oh, and English pancakes are traditionally served with lemon juice and sugar then rolled up, the addition of cream, chocolate and fruit sauces is a little special and probably introduced from Europe or USA.

And that is a short history and story behind pancake day in Britain and some British influenced countries.
But wait, there is more.
When you read about Easter you will see it is a major festival celebrated by Christians in many countries around the world.
So how to these people prepare, do they have Lent?
They sure do, it is a universal practice for Christians in the lead up to Easter, but instead of it being called Shrove [or pancake] Tuesday it has different names.

In some LATIN countries, such as Spain, and South America it is called “Fat Tuesday”in English or, Mardi Gras and also known as Carnival in other countries
Ok, now these maybe festivals you DO know, and while they have developed into more of a street party atmosphere than the British people care for, the basic, underlying idea is the same.
The last chance to be “naughty” eat luxury foods and party before spending 47 days in punishment.
Finally, because it is tied to Easter, Lent, Mardi Gras, Carnival and Shrove Tuesday are all moveable festivals, which I will explain when we discuss Easter.

Easter

Easter is one of the festivals that is common and shared by countries, although maybe in slightly different ways.
It is also a little special in that, unlike others that fall on the same day each year, it is a little like the Chinese holidays and the date is different each year according to the moon. So it is a “moveable” festival but always falls between March 22 and April 25.

Another thing that sets it apart, at least in NZ is that it is a holiday protected by law.
By that I mean if shops want to open on Christmas day for example, they can do so if they find people who want to work, but it is illegal for shops to open during Easter, so I always say Easter is one of our more serious festivals.
If you are in business and your clients are in a European country then probably you already know they will be closed for these 4 days.
Some people argue we should be free to work if we want, others say that it is a way to protect the day and limit the amount of ways it can be commercially exploited.

OK, today Easter is celebrated to mark the death of the Christians God, Jesus Christ and many people around the world will take the time to go to church, pray and try to spend a few days of peace and calm.
In different countries people may well light candles and churches often have candles instead of electric lights, it is considered a day of mourning, a day of quiet to pay respect to a man who died.
For deeply religious people the lead up to Easter is called “LENT” and spend either fasting [not eating ]or just eating certain foods.

It is usually a 4 day holiday, the first and last days are considered the most important and sacred.
According to the Christians and their Bible Christ was living in the times that were ruled by the Romans, who had a very strong idea of what was right, usually their way, and was was wrong, usually other peoples!
Today we might think of Christ as a trouble maker or dissident, a guy who was constantly against the government.
He had collected a group of followers and the Roman rulers became concerned that this man was becoming too powerful and important, so they decided to arrest him and charge him with the crime of being against the government, a crime which attracted the death penalty.
It was of course no surprise he was found guilty and executed.

Now the Romans had some rather nasty ways of execution, one way was to place the prisoner in a sports ground with a couple of hungry lions and see who would win. No surprise that the lions rarely lost!
Another way was called “crucifixion” a very large and extremely heavy wooden cross, taller than a man, was made and the prisoner was made to carry his cross through the streets to the place of execution.
Can you imagine the feeling of terror that anyone in this situation would have felt, carrying this huge heavy cross slowly through the streets for several miles, often so weak and tired they would end up crawling, while being kicked or beaten by people along the street as well as whipped or stabbed by the guards if they stopped or fell down? And all the time knowing they were slowly getting closer to the time when someone would drive huge metal nails through the palms of their hands and then be left to slowly bleed to death.
Well this situation lead to an English expression which we will talk about later.

One he reached the place of crucifixion, the prisoner and the cross were laid out on the ground and then he was “lashed” or tied to the cross, his arms outstretched along the top “T” rails, his ankles bound to the upright pole and then was “nailed” to the cross by hammering long metal spikes or nails through his hands into the wood.
When he was secure the cross was hauled to an upright position and partially set into the earth.
The prisoner was left to die, mostly from suffocation as pain from the broken bones in the shoulders and legs and the weight on the nails in the feet would make it hard to breathe.

It was not pleasant. Maybe taking a chance with the lions would have been a quicker and less painful death?
For Christ, this happened on a Friday.
OK, well eventually he died, his body was taken down and placed in a secret cave where a huge stone was rolled over the door to keep people out. The stone was so heavy it took many men to move it.
The following Monday people were surprised to see the stone moved and the body gone, and at the entrance stood an angel, some of his friends said that they saw him walking and he spoke to them.
So that is a very brief and not so religious look at what is supposed to have happened and explains why we call the first day of Easter Good Friday, and the last Easter Monday.
Indecently, the moveable date was “set” by the Church several hundred years ago, so it is not certain that Christ was actually executed on that day, but the theory is still the same.

Lets now look at some of the “symbols” of Easter.
Perhaps the 3 best know are the CROSS, the RABBIT and the EGG.
The cross is a true Christian symbol because this is what Christ was nailed to, but what about the others?
As festivals generally began hundreds of years ago, the exact meaning and beginning of some customs is hard to know for certain, different “experts” have different ideas.
However we can get some idea from the name EASTER which began as a PAGAN festival.
It seems this came from “EASTRE” who was a the ancient Saxons Goddess of spring and children and they celebrated the end of winter several hundred years BEFORE the birth of Christ.
Sort of a Saxon Spring Festival!
Like all respectable gods and goddesses at the time, she had her symbols, one of which was the HARE [rabbit] and the other, yeah you guessed it, the egg.

If you have ever kept rabbits you know there is one thing they do very well, if you put a boy rabbit and a girl rabbit together for few moments you will soon have a city of rabbits. So both the egg and the rabbit were seen as signs of life, of fertility and after a long cold hard hungry winter, these were welcome signs.
The original Eastre was about the same time as Christ's death so it made sense for early Christians, especially MISSIONARIES to use the original idea to help “sell” their idea of Christianity to non believers

The “Modern” Easter rabbit seems to have originated in Germany and was taken to USA by early settlers where it slowly became popular over the rest of the world.

The egg has been a symbol of new life and fertility for many cultures well before the modern day Easter and at the beginning of spring people would give each other eggs to wish them well. As time went by these eggs became highly decorated, in early Russia children would paint their eggs and exchange them with friends.
The egg has changed in its form of decoration as humans develop better technology, from the first eggs coloured from plants to those using inks and paint so it is no surprise that as chocolate became the 'new” thing in Europe in the 19th century that eggs were made out of chocolate.

Chocolate at that time was a luxury and quite expensive so it was a good way to show your friends how much you cared for them. And how wealthy you are!
We talked earlier about the cross and an essential part of modern Easter is the hot cross bun, a sort of sweet bread roll baked with the sign of a cross on top.

To some extend Easter has not been as commercialised as other festivals, it has managed to keep its holy status, probably the biggest money making opportunity comes from the sale of chocolate eggs and rabbits and hot cross buns.

So in conclusion we can see that today Easter is probably the most holy and sombre of western traditions, it is celebrated in many countries and commemorates the death of the Christian's God Christ, but the name and many of the activities and symbols have been around for many hundreds of years before Christ was born.

ANZAC Day

I have included this as a "Special Interest" holiday.
It is also known as "Poppy Day" and celebrated by New Zealand and Australian people.
The word ANZAC mean Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and the day originated as a way to remember those soldiers from both countries who died in the the invasion of Turkey in WW1, 25th April, 1915.

The fighting began at dawn, and like most battles, it was supposed to be a quick, short fight with few casualties, but as is so often the case in wars, it turned into a very long and bloody battle with many thousands of young men being killed on both sides.
The fields were these young men fought and died were covered with poppies, before the battle, under normal circumstances a pretty site. The poppy has become the symbol for this day.

Today it has become a way of remembering those who died in other conflicts around the world, but the name remains the same.
It is a public holiday in NZ, recognised by law,and although maybe not quite as holy as Easter, it is still a very sombre and serious day.

A few days before the 25th many people will buy small, paper replica poppies and pin them to their jackets as a way of showing their respect. The money collected from the sale of poppies goes towards providing services for military people who are now retired or have been injured during their duty and cannot work.

Servicemen, their families and some others will attend what is called a "Dawn Parade", a very moving church service held at dawn, the same time as the fighting began.
It used to be common the see young peoples groups and sometimes school children at these services, but for the last few decades successive NZ governments have preferred to commit the NZ military to peacekeeping, engineering and medical support roles rather than to hostile acts.
Subsequently, NZ has not seen the obscenely high number of casualties as have other countries so this may be one reason why young people are unable to relate to it.
Interestingly, other countries now also use the poppy as an emblem to remember fallen service men and women .

May Day

First of May is, obviously, May Day and it is another of the festivals that goes back a very long time and has changed over time and is probably now more popularly known as "Workers Day."
However International Workers Day was only formed in 1889 so is just 120 years old, whereas the original May Day has been celebrated for several thousand years before that.

Now, if you are clever you will have begun to notice that we have many festivals which all seem to fall around the same time, or early in the year, end of winter and start of spring to be exact.

This is because for our ancestors, no matter whether they be Asian or European, the end of winter and the coming of spring was an important time, it meant the start of new life and more importantly I guess, the supply of fresh food.

Ok, now maybe you are asking why they all seem to fall at different times, the answer is not so difficult and I will try to give it in another article a bit later.
So May Day had similar beginnings, it was a celebration of the new season.
It is also celebrated differently in different countries, in NZ for example, it is possibly not such an important holiday as, generally speaking, people there have a good standard of living and working and maybe the country is too young to celebrate the original May Day.

In many European countries it is still a "fun" holiday and in England one tradition is the May Pole and the May Dance, however in recent years the celebrations have turned "ugly" marked by violence, as in Germany recently.

Queens Birthday

This isn't a really very interesting festival, but as it is still a public holiday in countries like England, New Zealand and Australia I will mention it.
Perhaps we can make it a little more useful by asking,
"What is a Monarch, what does the word mean?"

Well, Monarch means the leader of a country who never has to retire, quit or face an election and stays on the job as Head of State until they die.
Of course, in the past some Monarchs have been very unpopular and have been forced to leave by unhappy people.
Perhaps we can take the Emperor of past China as an example of a Monarch, once he or she, was there it was hard to get rid of them.

Today there are not many Monarchs left in the world and of those few, most have no actual power any more. The Queen of England is a good example, she may be Queen quite rich and important, but England is run by a Prime Minister, who, in actual fact has more power than the Queen.
Those Monarchs that do still run their country tend to be regarded as dictators, but I guess that is a matter of opinion.

A country that has a Monarch is called a Monarchy, so we have two nouns, one for the person, one for the country. Fascinating, yes?
So, in British culture we talk about the Queens birthday, which is June.
Well, to be honest it isn't, but you see in the past, when England wasn't civilised, or at least less civilised than it is now, Kings and Queens sometimes had a short life if people didn't like them.
Also wars and accidents meant that sometimes England had more than one King or Queen in a year.
Which meant we had to celebrate more than one birthday a year.
So, it was decided to make one special day and call it the Kings or Queens birthday, it didn't matter when the real birthday was, every King or Queen from that time on would have an Official birthday which the country would celebrate.

Of course, nothing could really be THAT simple, and so, just to confuse us, different countries celebrate it on ever so slightly different days!
First Monday in June each year is, in New Zealand, the Monarchs birthday and as that is currently a woman, we call it Queens Birthday Holiday.
In Australia it is the second Monday in June.

Why June?
Well, some say it was because in England, at that time, the weather was good and so ideal for a Royal Party.
So there you have it.

Breast Cancer Awareness

Ok, strictly speaking, this isn't a festival or celebration, but it DOES happen at a fixed time every year, it IS extremely important and so is worth mentioning

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and different cities, countries and groups have different activities. Some for just a day, others last the while month. It is identified with the colour pink and is observed every fourth Monday in October. [October 30th in 2009.]
Many people around the world will wear pink or pink ribbons or badges and donate money to show their support. Big companions will donate money and sponsor advertising, film and music stars will donate their time and help make the need to beat breast cancer more popular.
Along with CERVICAL [Cervix] cancer, it is the biggest killer of women all over the world. The cervix is only found in females and is part of the sex and reproductive organs found between the legs. It is also preventable, we may talk about later.

In case you don't understand, BREASTS are on front top of our body, usually larger in human females and are used to provide milk to babies. CANCER is a disease that destroys part of our body and usually ends in a painful death.

If found in time breast cancer can be treated and does not need to result in death [fatal]. However many women are unaware they have the disease until it is too late and end up dying.
Breast Cancer Awareness month aims to make people more aware if this disease and encourage them to go to their doctors for a check up. It also teaches women how to check their breasts and what signs to look for that may mean they have the disease.

In a lot of countries such as China, India, Vietnam many women have primitive ideas and thoughts about their bodies, and sadly, many are too shy or ignorant to know what to do and end up dying needlessly before they turn 50.

This is true in rural areas and among women over 40, and it is very very sad because these are the young women who will die when they could quite easily be saved.
So, what can you do?
Well, as a female, you can learn how to check yourself, what things to look for, go to your doctor, she will teach you and have a check up at least once a year, twice is better. Remember, it is a killer, but only if you let it.

Second, if you are a young woman, talk to your mother, aunties and any other older generation female friends and family members and encourage them to go for a check up also. In many countries, this is a free service.

If you are male, you are a little more fortunate, Breast Cancer does not generally attack us, although, we are killed by a wider range of cancers than woman, anything from throat to anus, mostly because of the male lifestyle; stress, alcohol and cigarettes.

However you can show your support for Breast Cancer Awareness Day by talking to your wives and girl friends and if you feel uncomfortable talking to your mum, maybe ask your lady friend to talk to her and they can go for a check up together.
Our mums are THE most important people in the world to most of us, and it is a sad, black day when they die, if they die young when they could have been saved, it is even worse, especially if we know we could have done something.

Everyone can be active in their community, group, university or work place by helping promote Breast Cancer Awareness day, October 30th 2009 and maybe wear pink to show your support. When people ask you why your are wearing pink shoes, a pink hat, a pink shirt and tie and pink trousers or skirt you can then tell them it is Breast Cancer Awareness Day and tell them to spread the word.
Look HERE for pictures and more info. I have added some links to sites which might be useful, this one is aimed at younger women and this gives some practical ideas on what YOU can do during breast cancer awareness month.

Finally, like most of this site, it focuses on British culture, but as this is an important topic, I have included a link Breast Cancer in China as reported in The China Daily in 2006 and a copy of a later article, China Daily 2007
Remember, as someone else said,; "The life you save may be your own."

Halloween

Well, as those of you who know me are aware, I am British, not America, so here we focus mostly on British culture, simply because that is what I know and understand.
But, I do keep getting asked about Halloween, which although [to a greater or lesser degree] celebrated internationally, is really more of a North American tradition.
While it did originate, like many of our traditions, several hundred years ago in Ireland and has European influences it is now deeply rooted in USA pop culture and I do not know much about it.

So, to counter my ignorance, I have asked a friend of mine David Gartner to write something from an American perspective.
David has a USA university degree as well as considerable experience, there is a short bio about him HERE if you are looking for a good English teacher or a warm hearted man.
OK, so much for the introduction, here is David's account of "Halloween."

When I wore a younger mans clothes, Halloween was greatly anticipated.
My mother, being an artist at heart, created some fantastic costumes for the family.
A giant chicken, an alligator and a nun, were some of her creations.

I remember the first few times this spooky holiday was defined and explained to me.
First and foremost it is/was originally known as All Saints Day. A day in which a great feast is laid and eaten in recognition of those that have died in the name of Christianity. A religious celebration in which we remember Saintly folk of yester ye-or.

It's also known as All Hallows Eve, judging from these words and their spelling one could see where Halloween comes from.
Long ago people would dress up, light big fires and make noise to scare off the spirits of the dead who were coming to take over a living persons body.
Today we put on costumes and go Trick or Treating which is done by ringing a doorbell and yelling " Trick or Treat smell my feet, give me something good to eat " at which point the home owner would give you some candy .
Halloween is a special day. It is a different, strange sort of day, we, as Americans start thinking of it sometime in September.
There are 4 specific areas that need to be addressed when properly preparing for this...Holiday/Holi-night.

• First, we have the ever necessary costume.

A topic that is always changing and growing and is only bound by ones imagination and wallet. Everything is fair game here, if you can make it- or have it made, wear it!
Traditionally the costumes were usually something scary and associated with death or other various creatures of the night. But as time has passed people now view Halloween as a challenge to their creativity.

• Secondly, we have the home - yard and candy.

This my friends is not taken lightly. What people do to their homes and yards to make them ghoulish and interesting is barely bested by Christmas. We're talken' grave yards in the front yard - cob webs and hanging men from the porch.

• Then we come to the third area of Halloween. The HAUNTED HOUSE !

This is outrageous. And as you can imagine not limited to homes. The haunted yard - garage - field - warehouse etc.
What I am talking about here is something that you WALK into that is FILLED with freaky, scary, TERRIFYING,images that are hanging from the walls - groping at you from the floors, screaming and crying and bleeding and shocking you from the moment you enter.

It's like walking into a VERY scary movie set. It's very dark if not completely black, and you just walk, either because your being pushed from behind or you want to get out as soon as possible.
Every turn you make inside brings you to another gruesome discovery. A mad killer decapitating a captive, some decrepit loner sucking on the severed arm of victim, a chained and screaming person about to become a .. victim. Vivid memorable images of hell on earth.

• Then of course # 4,

the giving of candy to the young children as they come to your home trick or treating. Delightful costumes - cute , children hoping to receive some yummies.

• Then we get to PUMPKINS

wow - what a business this is in October.
Carving a pumpkin in my day was simply making a Jack-o-lantern out of one. My day has passed friends. Carving a pumpkin is serious professional craftsmanship at this point. The designs are as varied as costumes.

I have A LOT of very fond memories surrounding this Holiday.
It was always FUN.
Thanks David, hmmm, seems I missed out on some thing when I was growing up
peter.

Guy Fawkes Night

November 5th is Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night and is celebrated in England and other English speaking countries such as NZ and Australia. The day, or rather night, because it is a night time festival, commemorates the time in about 1604 when a Mr Guy Fawkes and a group of men tried to kill the English King and destroy the governments houses using gunpowder.
Why?
Well, that is a longer story!