5th of November, Remembered by Cambridge

Just finished reading Paul’s entry about the Guy Fawkes hacks at MIT and feel obligated to write about 5th of November/Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night over here at the other Cambridge.

I actually saw V for Vendetta without knowing about Bonfire Night. Not very meaningful this way at all. But I found out all about Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night during my Chinese class last week (in Chinese, of course). I didn’t see any masks over here but there there is an annual carnival+fireworks+bonfire event that I felt compelled to go. So after eating dinner at my college, I headed over to Midsummer Commons along with a sea of people. I was worried that I won’t know how to get there but no worries because everyone else was going!

The streets were so packed with people that cars and bikes had a lot of trouble getting through. It really looked like the whole town showed up for these fireworks. The fireworks themselves lasted for about 20 minutes and were pretty cool. Can’t be compared to fireworks during New Years but it was cool nevertheless. Here are some pictures courtesy of a couple of other MIT students, Maria and Xin:

People and more people…

Explosions, yay!

And the bonfire, of course.

Tea, coffee, and chips…

Besides these fireworks, there have been various smaller fireworks going off all night long. You can buy fireworks at the local grocery store! Some colleges held their own fireworks last week.