Most towns put on some kind of municipal celebration for Bonfire Night. They'll burn a few tires, let off a few fireworks in a field with some security and a burger van, then pop off to bed. To be fair, some towns make a fair effort - especially this year, when in Oban they accidentally let off 30 minutes of fireworks in 30 seconds. Which I think was probably far better than what they'd planned.
But still - it's not a patch on what they do in the small Devon town of Ottery St. Mary.
It's a tradition so old that no-one's quite sure why they do it, but every year, they take a number of barrels, which have been repeatedly painted on the inside with tar. Then they set them alight. Then they hoist them on their shoulders (wearing asbestos mittens, several layers of clothing, but no helmet or any other safety gear) and run round the town square or up and down the streets as spectators (numbering in their thousands) shrink / leap out of the way.
You have to be born in Ottery St. Mary to take part, and it's clearly a matter of huge pride to these men, who've been training for these days since childhood. There's a huge degree of pride and status involved in carrying the barrels, and these burly alpha-males revel in it.
I'd recommend it to anyone. It's basically a cross between a rugby club pub crawl and a Rammstein concert.
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