After returning home and talking about Borough Market, we headed off to meet some colleagues for the fireworks at Battersea Park, where the lighting of the bonfire lead up to fireworks set to music (I think my bonfire picture looks a little sinister somehow). Yet again, there was a huge crowd and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Before the actual fireworks commenced there was a display of arial acrobatics with trapeze artists who were performing some kind of mid-air ballet set to music. The performers were all suspended from a huge crane which allowed the audience on the fields below to watch the spectacle. They also used dancing kites set to music and illuminated from below to add to the effect. Sadly, many of the crowd were only there for the explosions and starting jeering. I was not impressed by those that starting booing – I thought the show was a great attempt to try to do something a little more than just have a series of spectacular fireworks and the council and the performers deserved much credit. The fireworks themselves were, as the Battersea show always is, spectacular. I was trying to explain the origins of bonfire night to one of our group who comes from Italy and was not aware of the traditions. Sadly, I was unable to remember much of what I learnt last year:
Responding to papal denunciations and pressure from radical Protestants, Queen Elizabeth’s government severely penalised practising Catholics. Catholics hoped for greater toleration from James, whose Queen was herself a Catholic. Instead, James reconfirmed Elizabeth’s anti-Catholic legislation; he also ended England’s war with Spain, removing any hope of imposing Catholicism by force [source]