Guy Fawkes Day is a British holiday, yet South Africans love lighting up the sky with fireworks like it was part of our own history. However, wild animals and pets are notoriously petrified of the loud noises and blinding lights of the fireworks. Lowveld SPCA and ProLife urge
South Africans not to set them off. Are there other ways to celebrate this holiday? Nelspruit Post investigated and came up with some alternatives.
A bonfire
In 1605, when a group of Catholics failed to blow up Parliament, the people of England rejoiced by lighting fires across London. Today, most Brits gather round a massive (but controlled) fire to commemorate the fact that King James I was saved. If there’s one thing almost all South Africans know how to do it’s gather round a fire. If controlled, it is safer and less dreadful to animals than fireworks.
Dress up
Sowetans don’t really celebrate Halloween. No, their dress-up day is actually Guy Fawkes Day! Crowds take to the streets in elaborate costumes, chanting and dancing. Residents of Soweto, and many other informal settlements, stuff their chests and bums with pillows and paste their faces with elaborate make-up.
Movie night
You don’t even have to leave your house to commemorate this day! Take your pick from the following list, taken from Happy Good Time Poeple: V for Vendetta; Gunpowder, Treason and Plot; Wonderland; Salome’s Last Dance and Attack the Block. These are all films based on, or explaining, the events that took place on 5 November 1605.
