Curse the forces that extinguished Bonfire

Take an explosive mixture of pagan ritual, religious bigotry, treason, Christianity, the alleged influence of an American greetings card company, Chinese inventiveness in the 12th century and the malignant eye of the health and safety brigade . . . and it just shows how the retail industry can triumph over pure enjoyment.

Halloween has replaced Bonfire Night in British kids' eyes.

Let's unravel this unlikely cocktail by looking at China's involvement - purely innocent, by the way.

It all started in the 12th century when the Chinese, as part of the earlier invention of gunpowder, developed fireworks, initially used to scare off evil spirits and still used to dramatic effect at Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival. It goes without saying that China is recognized as the biggest fireworks manufacturer in the world.

The invention, if you will pardon the pun, took off like a rocket and, as far as we know, the Arabs cottoned on to the idea of gunpowder and fireworks in the 13th century.

By the 18th century fireworks had started to form part of celebratory events in Europe, notably France and England.

Enter a villain, in the shape of an English Roman Catholic convert named Guy Fawkes, who joined a 17th century Catholic conspiracy to blow up London's Houses of Parliament while the Protestant King James I was presiding over a session.

History tells us he was discovered with several large barrels of gunpowder and a burning fuse under the House of Lords on Nov 5, 1605. After 10 days of torture he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Luck was on his side, sort of. On his way to the gallows, he fell off the scaffold and broke his neck, thus avoiding the more gruesome parts of his sentence.

Ever since then, children in the UK have celebrated the event known as Bonfire Night, with fires, fireworks and the burning of an effigy of Fawkes.

Enter more villains - the health and safety brigade.

Once virtually every family had a bonfire party, when a Guy was burnt, fireworks were let off and a good time was had by all. But then slowly more and more regulations were introduced, including a ban on penny bangers, a small Chinese-made firework with satisfyingly loud explosive qualities - think hand grenade without the shrapnel.

Over the past decade, celebrations have devolved into community bonfires in parks and open spaces. The last one I went to in Blackheath, southeast London, a couple of years ago, had no bonfire, no Guy, just a huge and admittedly spectacular commercial fireworks display.

The image from my childhood of kids pushing a pram with a Guy made of old clothes and straw, chanting "Penny for the guy, mister" - accumulating cash with which to buy fireworks - has long gone. You have to produce ID and be over 16 to buy them these days and, in terms of power, today's fireworks are a shadow of the ones you used to get over the counter.

Enter yet more villains who, legend has it, were executives at Hallmark, the US greeting card company known for generating cards to celebrate any event, however obscure.

They may be blameless for promoting the event, but it is a fact that celebrating Halloween, with kids dressing up and trick-or-treating from door to door, is a singularly American commercial idea from the last century that has gradually taken root here in Britain. It is now a massive retail operation.

Halloween itself has a confused back story. The word itself is a contraction of All Hallows Evening, marking the night before the Christian All Saints Day of Nov 1, which for Roman Catholics is a day of obligation.

All Hallows Evening itself has roots in Celtic harvest festivals. Some believe it started with the Gaelic Samhain festival, which became Christianized in medieval times.

Whatever its roots, it has largely replaced Bonfire Night in children's affections, since they can get much more involved with trick-or-treating, with the promise of candy at the end.

But, try as I might, I can't for the life of me figure out where pumpkins came into the equation.

Chris Peterson is managing editor, Europe for China Daily. Contact him at chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/04/2016 page11)