Those two rocket men, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un went up in smoke at Lewes Bonfire, our local and the world’s biggest celebration of that eccentric festival that used to be known as Guy Fawkes Night. Tens of thousands of people head for my hometown of Lewes for the processions, fireworks and most famously, the effigy-parading and ritual- burning of the year’s most infamous celebrities. Donald and Kim were strapped to the same intercontinental missile and, at the end of the evening, they were sent on their way.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, not exactly a threat to world peace or to anything else much, apart from leading Britain into nowhere after what in Lewes was the hugely unpopular Brexit referendum. Our very own lack-lustre Britannia was led through the streets behind Donald and Kim.

All three ended up on the bonfire – hurrah! I love Lewes’s most anarchic event as did the thousands of people who watched this year’s pariahs go up in smoke.

I am lucky to live in Lewes and even luckier at Bonfire because the grand parades come to me and, this time, ten years after moving to this great little town, I watched the whole thing from my window.

It was my equivalent of a royal box as the processions marched past – I could even shout greetings to friends on parade.

It was an inspiring and slightly insane night which really is unique in these days of safety-first, political-correctness and safe rooms. Nothing felt safe that night – but the danger was served with a sense of humour. Long may it prosper.

That evening of long-held traditions ended, as it always does, with a spectacular display of fireworks which light up the sky all over our small, badly-behaved, provincial town.

It was wonderful to see it all from my own personal box. See you next year, folks!

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One of the many great things about living where I live in Lewes in the UK, is the annual Bonfire celebrations – the largest in Europe and, with its anarchic fervour, also the most fun. I don’t have to go out to see the giant processions though – it comes to me and processes in front of my house lighting it up with its fiery torches and wickedly exploding fireworks.

I live in the area belonging last night to our local Bonfire society, Commercial Square Bonfire Society, whose yellow and black smugglers’ uniforms bring our street alive every November the Fifth, Britain’s traditional Fireworks Night.

November the Fifth in Lewes isn’t anything like the wonderful Spring Festival in China that I visited a few years ago where the emphasis was on the magnificence of the fireworks and the spirit of celebrating the new season of rebirth. Lewes Bonfire is an anarchist celebration that defies police disapproval, do-gooders’ safety warnings and, best of all, authority figures of church and state. The marchers dress up  as smugglers and pioneers who have been repressed but remained defiant over the centuries. The Commercial Square Bonfire Society has recognised the suffering of Native Americans since 1855 and many of the marchers dress to remember them.

For years the police have tried to ban the fireworks from the streets but the Bonfire Societies continue to flaunt their warnings and, in the best possible way, p;rove to be unpoliceable. These days, the visible police presence is low and wise enough to let the event police itself.

So here are some photographs of the event as it unfolded in front of my house – it was, as usual, terrific. Look out for those X Men – they had an honourable place here too.

Next day, in true anarchist style, everything had been cleared up and you would never guess that chaos reigned here only hours ago.

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Tonight is Fireworks night here in the UK. We light fireworks, set off mini explosions and make giant bonfires to celebrate a historical attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the King, James I, They caught the perpetrators including one Guy Fawkes who was sentenced to a gory death and who is remembered or forgotten when all those effigies called guys are burnt on November the 5th every year. Nowhere in Britain makes a bigger deal of this than my home town of Lewes that is already in the grips of excitement getting ready for its great moment of distinction tonight, the annual Lewes Bonfire, the biggest firework night in Europe,  scheduled to bring tens of thousands of visitors to our streets. It remembers Guy Fawkes of course but also 17 Protestant martyrs burnt outside Lewes town hall during the reign of Queen Mary I – the girl the vodka and tomato juice drink is named after, Bloody Mary. It should be good anarchist fun when our streets are taken over by rowdy and disrespectful processions and the effigy burning of this year’s favourite bad guys. I shall try to bring you some flavour of it in tomorrow’s blog if I’m not having too much fun that is to take any pictures.

I thought, though,  I wouldn’t let this time of year pass without drawing your attention to an Existentialist view of another Autumn celebration. There is a new (4th) episode in the wonderful Henri Le Chat movies starring the World’s most sophisticated Existentialist cat. If you’ve missed the previous three episodes then make up for lost time and for missed and mixed joy.

Here is Episode Four taking an Existentialist view on Halloween. I don’t think Henri would like Lewes’ Bonfire party. To see the other three Henri films, type  “Henri”  in this blog’s search window above.

http://www.everydaypoets.com/?s=Colin+Bell

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Yesterday saw the end of British Summer Time as our Northern European light got markedly dimmer and the days grew noticeably shorter. Also, here in Lewes, it rained. The 30th of October is also the day before Halloween when dismal nights are brightened by pagan ceremonies involving pumpkins and ghoulish fancy dress on the traditional feast when the dead are feared to walk the Earth.

Here in my home town this is also the time when the majority of our citizens are preparing for the great bonfire celebrations that are only a week away on the 5th November when English history conjoins with more pagan rituals as fireworks, processions and gigantic bonfires light up the town well into the night. Already this week premature igniters are setting off fireworks on street corners filling the air with the evocative smell of cordite and the members of the various Bonfire societies wander a round town in their   uniforms of wooly striped pullovers.

This is the most distinctively evocative time of year here in Lewes so any other memorable event that has its anniversary at this time is always wrapped in the atmosphere of grey light, falling leaves, gunpowder and swollen orange vegetables.

The 30th October is just such an anniversary for me because three years ago yesterday I suffered a near fatal brain haemorrhage on a day that is now a muffled mix of disjointedly and barely remembered details. I had promised myself that I would let the moment pass unmarked this year now that I am significantly recovered from most of the effects of that sudden and unexpected drama but this vivid time of year doesn’t allow forgetfulness. Instead this season returns inexorably clamouring for recognition telling anyone with melancholy thoughts, vivid memories or the consequences of life’s uncertainties to sit around fires, – bonfires or domestic hearths – and to contemplate their fate.

So it was for me yesterday – as much a celebration of life as a warning of sudden death. It is good for all of us that we, up here in the Northern hemisphere, have these moments in time when we are forced to mix festivity with melancholy.

Just a few weeks before 30th October 2008, I partied as if there were no tomorrow not knowing that without the British National Health Service, there so easily might not have been a tomorrow. I have been fortunate and now have had three years of tomorrows, three years of borrowed time and three years of realization that none of us know what tomorrow has waiting for us. I celebrate this. After-all if there was never anything to fear, there would be no reason to raise our spirits with fire, explosives, strong liqueur and good company. This is the season of darkness and of light. Let’s enjoy it one and all.

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