Guy Fawkes Carnival
Bridgwater, Somerset
Thursday nearest 5 November

The Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival is now a huge event which has almost lost touch with its origins. It is the first of a circuit of carnival which take place over the following ten days. However, they do have their own unique firework display in the High Street itself, which is known as 'Bridgewater squibbing'. Over a hundred young people, representatives from numerous carnival clubs, form up in two facing lines. Each has a six-foot pole, attached to the end of which is a squib or roman candle. A row of fire is lit between the two lines, and on a loud blast from the leader's whistle, the two lines of pole-bearers light the touchpapers of their fireworks, which they then raise over their heads. There follows a stupendous, climactic firework display which can be seen for miles.

The carnival itself was first officially organised in 1882 and as it grew in size, so it was moved from Guy Fawkes night to Bridgwater's nearest early-closing day on Thursday. There are now over a hundred separate floats in the carnival, each one competing for the various prizes on offer, which is the reason why Guy Fawkes now plays only a minor role.

Lewes Bonfire Night
Lewes, Sussex
5 November

Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated at Lewes in Sussex with an enthusiasm that must make it the most spectacular of all bonfire nights. At about 6 o'clock in the evening, the numerous bon~re societies foregather at the War Memorial, where they lay wreaths, and on occasion sing hymns and hear a short sermon. Thereafter, there is the Grand Parade, with flaming torches and members of each society dressed up in striking costumes according to their chosen theme, such as Vikings, Zulus or Red Indians. Each society marches to its own bonfire site, where 'prelates' or 'archbishops' read a sermon before consigning effigies of the Pope and Guy Fawkes into the flames.

It is not forgotten in Lewes that seventeen Protestant martyrs were burned to death here in the reign of Queen Mary, and some of the societies to this day carry ‘No Popery' banners. In 1679 a Benjamin Harris described the burning of a popish effigy, and in 1853 the first two bonfire societies were formed, the Borough and the Cliffe Society, and many more have been formed since. Parliament instituted 5 November as 'a holiday forever in thanksgiving to God for deliverance and detestation of the papistry, to commemorate Guy Fawkes' failed plot of 1605 to blow up the Houses of Parliament'. The people of Lewes are not likely to let the occasion pass unremarked.

Turning the Devil's Stone
Shebbear, near Holsworthy,
Devon 5 November

While everywhere else in the country on 5 November people are commemorating the memory of Guy Fawkes and his perfidious gun-powder plot, the villagers of Shebbear in Devon are preparing to turn the Devil's Stone. The bell-ringers go to the church at about 8 o'clock in the evening, where they ring out a violently discordant peal of bells. That done, they make their way out of the church and, with the aid of crossbars, apply themselves to the task of turning the Shebbear, or Devil's Stone nearby. After this considerable exertion, they can rest from their labours, secure in the knowledge that Shebbear is safe from harm in the coming year.

While it is not known for how long the practice of turning the stone has been going on, there is a wealth of legend surrounding it and as to how it arrived. The stone itself is about six feet long and is said to weigh a ton. It is not from a local rock formation and is, in fact, an erratic - that is, a stone from elsewhere, such as those deposited in the Ice Age. One theory is that it may have been an altar stone brought by a pagan cult, in the way that the Druids brought stones from Wales to Stonehenge in Wiltshire, though there is no evidence for this. Another is that it was dropped by the Devil himself when he was cast out of heaven by St Michael, hence the clamour of discordant bells to frighten him
away. Finally, there is the theory that it was quarried as the foundation stone for Hanscott Church nearby and was moved to Shebbear by the Devil or some supernatural force, and that every time it was retrieved, it mysteriously turned up at
Shebbear again, so was finally left there.

It is said that the turning was neglected once in the First World
War, when misfortune immediately descended on the village Again, in 1940, when most of the able-bodied men were away they failed to turn the stone and the war news suddenly became  so threatening that is unlikely that it won't be turned again in the future.