Fire and Rain

Saturday November 6th 2010

Giant showers of caramel glitter, acid green parasols of fire, ruby red rain. And the real rain came in thin drenching sheets. And our faces shone in the light of thousands of falling stars, showers of glitter, flowers of burning light.

Bonfire night.

The wettest I can remember.

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Uranus in water signs. Mars, alone, shooting fiery arrows from Sagittarius.

But what a magnificent sight. Fireworks fought through the downpour, smoke lit up in multi-coloured clouds, and the dark silhouettes of people gazing at fire. Everyone screamed at the biggest bangs.

The 5th of November is celebrated across Britain with fire and light. Effigies are burned, crosses set alight, burning tar carried through the street in barrels. It’s said to commemorate the defeat of a plot to bomb parliament a few hundred years ago. In fact, we are challenging demons of winter with our own festival of light.

Last night the rain won eventually, but it was glorious.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    That sounds wonderful Christina, here in the US our main firework celebration is in summer (4 July) so we rarely get rained on!! Thank you for such an atmospheric piece of writing.