“The Fifth of November is Guy Fawkes’ Day in England. In peacetime it is celebrated with bonfires on the greens, fireworks in the parks and the carrying of “guys” through the streets. “Guys” are stuffed, straw figures of unpopular persons; and after they have been shown to everybody they are burnt in the bonfires amid great acclamation.
The children black their faces and put on comical clothes, and go about begging for a Penny for the Guy. Only the very meanest people refuse to give pennies and these are always visited by Extreme Bad Luck.
The Original Guy Fawkes was one of the men who took part in the Gunpowder Plot. This was a conspiracy for blowing up King James I and the Houses of Parliament on November 5th, 1605. The plot was discovered, however, before any damage was done. The only result was that King James and his Parliament went on living but Guy Fawkes, poor man, did not.
He was executed with the other conspirators. Nevertheless, it is Guy Fawkes who is remembered today and King James who is forgotten. For since that time, the Fifth of November in England, like the Fourth of July in America, has been devoted to Fireworks.
From 1605 till 1939 every village green in the shires had a bonfire on Guy Fawkes’ Day.… Since 1939, however, there have been no bonfires on the village greens. No fireworks gleam in the blackened parks and the streets are dark and silent. But this darkness will not last forever.
There will some day come a Fifth of November — or another date, it doesn’t matter — when fires will burn in a chain of brightness from Land’s End to John O’ Groats. The children will dance and leap about them as they did in the times before. They will take each other by the hand and watch the rockets breaking, and afterwards they will go home singing to the houses full of light…”
-P. L. Travers, in an introductory note to Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)
Midsummer Night’s Fire Ritual for Litha
The Bonfire of the Leper’s
Remember Remember the fifth of November, but our story today isn’t about some fawking guy trying to blow up the king. No! Our story is much much older with humanities roots into the neolithic…
The Celtic Pagan history survives only in the folktales of the Leper’s…
Beltane Festival Dancers
Bonfire Night
For centuries Leper’s have been caste from society, barred to the outlaw land in between civilization…
In this ancient baron land, old traditions have been passed down from times before humanities grasp. Outlaw professions such as blacksmiths and rope makers occupied these lands between rules, pushed from society for the safety of the town’s due to the risk of fire.
These were the only jobs available to the Leper’s roaming away from towns. With the oral teachings of these ancient professions, folktales as old as time also survived. And in some cases, practiced…
Samhain is a ancient Pagan festival marking the end of Harvest season, roughly celebrated between October 31- November 5. Like many ancient celebrations, this one revolved around the almighty power of the bonfire.
Like Samhain, Carnival also has its roots in Pagan Rites. Samhain marking the end of the season, Carnival marking the birth. Here with the Leper’s celebrating ‘Carnival’ we find our forgotten hemp history…
‘The fool, hatching an empty egg,’ engraving after a design by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559/69
The Hut of the Leper’s
The bonfire burned during Carnival is called ‘a border fire’ or ‘cabin fire’, but why would a bonfire be described as ‘cabin’ or at its latin roots ‘hollow’?
Its the leper’s folktales from France that give us a reason, Historian Claude Gaignebet fills in the history…
“The bonfire was originally constructed in the form of a cabin, with scrape pieces of Hemp, and built over a hole dug in the ground. Such underground sites are fairly common. Most often they are bottle shaped. A bench on the bottom allowed one to sit down.
Once the Leper’s or member’s of the initiatory brotherhoods of carnival had descended into these holes, the fire would be lit above them. The fumes of the Hemp to which they were subjected would allow them to travel into the beyond.”
Mystery Hill, close to the town of Salem, New Hampshire
In the Hemp smoke filled chamber, the Leper’s or the ‘member’s of the initiatory brotherhoods of carnival’ would dawn elaborate masks (for the leper’s hiding their condition). Waiting for the hemp fire above to completely burn out, they would emerge reborn…
“masked lepers run out from their hemp cabins, the world is turned on its head and the liberating laughter of the carnival rules supreme”
So lets be clear whats going on here… Our Neolithic Pagan ancestors built underground chambers/rooms, built bonfire’s of Hemp on top of the structure and with a hole going down into the chamber, clam baked the room…
Wow…
Now what to do with all the harvest clippings… History, its bound to repeat itself…
Upton Chamber Upton Massachusetts
Its worth noting… America has many small neolithic age underground chambers/rooms who’s origins and/or purpose is yet to be discovered…
American Stonehenge – ‘Mystery Hill’, close to the town of Salem, New Hampshire