Keeping the Bonfires Lit

Over the past few centuries perhaps no season in the British festival calendar has undergone more noticeable changes than the first half of November. Today this period features a cluster of highly visible commemorations: Halloween, Bonfire Night, and Remembrance Day. Along with these come All Saints and All Souls Day – in Britain mostly observed only in churches, although elsewhere in Europe these too can involve public spectacle. Five very different commemorations within 12 days makes for a busy fortnight. These events vary dramatically in mood and aesthetic, from the cheery orange of Halloween and the clamour of fireworks to the sombre black and red of requiems and poppies and the keeping of collective silence. Depending on how their dates align each year with the days when it is convenient to observe them, this period can contain an odd mix of clashing celebrations. Where I live it is common to see children trick-or-treating while fireworks are also lighting up the sky, and the bonfire displays are still going strong on the eve of Remembrance Sunday. I don’t know how often we pause to think about how strange this juxtaposition is, or consider the accidents of history which created these rituals faithfully repeated every year. This festival season feels ancient and timeless, though it looked entirely different 100, 500, or 1,000 years ago. These events all have very distinct histories, and only at this particular moment in time have they come together in such close proximity. If the resulting season seems rather confused, that’s not surprising; ritual behaviour does not have to be logical for it to be meaningful. More interesting is to notice how this season is continuing to evolve in the present day, and to speculate how it might look different again 100 years from now. Of these observances, the only ones which existed in Britain 1,000 years ago were All Saints Day and its eve, although the modern version of Halloween is far removed from its ancient roots. In the past few decades the British Halloween has been transformed from a small-scale event into one of the most popular, commercialised festivals in the year. Halloween decorations appeared in the shops in early September, before we were even finished with the summer heatwaves, and what has been newly designated ‘spooky season’ seems to get longer by the year. Autumn too is becoming increasingly commercialised, as a season that can be sold. Retailers have spotted an opportunity to persuade consumers to buy wreaths of artificial leaves, cutesy mugs, and pumpkin-spice everything. The new manifestation of Halloween is overshadowing Bonfire Night, and it may be that the festival is entering its last days. Deeply political in its origins, it was born of a specific moment of national crisis in the 17th century. Does it still resonate today, when the narratives of our national history are ever more contested? How much longer can a predominantly British festival compete with Halloween, which is so influenced by American popular culture? Bonfire Night itself benefited from the decline of older festivals: it absorbed some traditions which had already been linked with early November before the Reformation, such as lighting fires and ringing church bells at Hallowtide. In the late Middle Ages, Hallowtide – All Saints and All Souls Day – was a time for commemorating the glorious dead and souls in need of prayer and remembrance. Though its customs were suppressed at the Reformation, in the 20th century its themes found new expression through Remembrance Day. No less than the medieval Hallowtide, this is a season of collective mourning, with shared rituals for grieving the lost, both known and unknown. Remembrance Day is barely more than a century old, and its observance is still linked to the two world wars. As those conflicts pass out of living memory, how will it develop in the future? All these events, with their diverse origins, are historically contingent, and yet we might see them all as different responses to the same ancient urge. As the year darkens, November has long been a time for fire, feasting, and remembering the dead. Whatever happens in the coming years, it seems likely people will keep finding new excuses to feast, new reasons to kindle a fire. Eleanor Parker is Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford.