31st October

Coral Princess being owned by an American company, the staff followed American culture particularly for the 31st of October.
It must be me, but I find it a little odd to celebrate the dead. I know it is usually a ‘fun time’ but I still think it odd.

Various areas of the ship were decorated to celebrate the dead and the staff embraced the idea.

The above bar was the Crooners Bar – a favourite of ours for pre-dinner drinks.

At least the spider wasn’t a red back

which is a highly venomous spider that originated in S. Australia.  Whenever I see a red back, it is DEAD in a very short time!

It didn’t matter which bar we visited it was horror night. The above is the Wheelhouse Bar for a night cap after the show.

Crooner’s Bar with little green skeleton man.

The idea of celebrating the dead has been imported to Australia and appears to be a sweet begging process for children.
When I was young I was not encouraged to knock on the door of strangers. That was considered very impolite.

The 31st October during my childhood was Duck Apple Night.

The origin of the game has a number of answers some say it is to do with finding a mate for life, depending on how successful you are with the apples.

I’ve also read that it is to celebrate the end of gathering the harvest and the start of winter.
Whatever the reason, it was always good fun – I suppose health and safety today would ban such unhealthy games of various faces using the same water and attempting to bite in to a common apple.  c’est la vie . . .

To be fair to the American readers the British have a celebration connected with death, but on the 5th November, not the 31st October.
This is when British children create a large bonfire and place the effigy of a man at the top and set fire to the bonfire. The children stand around and watch fire consume the effigy.

Guy Fawkes – the one on the left.

Once again all to do with history, when in 1605 an attempt was made to blow up the Houses of Parliament when the King (James the 1st of England who was also James the 6th of Scotland), and his ministers were inside the building.
The plot failed and the main conspirator, Guy Fawkes, was captured on the 5th November and interrogated until he gave the names of the other plotters.

Later in January 1606 a Bill went through Parliament requiring church ministers to hold a special service of thanksgiving for the failure of the plot annually on 5 November.  This bill remained on the Statute books until 1859.

In 1790 it was reported that children were begging money for the ‘Guy Faux’, and when I was a child it was common for children to ask for a penny for the guy – they would have a dummy that they had created which was destined for the top of a bonfire and the money would buy fireworks – the fireworks represented the gunpowder below the Houses of Parliament.

Penny for the Guy ?
Those who were caught with Guy Fawkes were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered so parts of their bodies could be sent to different areas of the land as a warning.

Guy Fawkes avoided the hangman by jumping off the hangman’s scaffold which cause him to break his neck- but his body was still drawn & quartered.

Children in 1954, they have a guy and need help with the bonfire.

When I was a child the street in which I lived was nowhere near any open space, so we built our bonfire in the street – we knew where to build it because the scar from last year was still visible.
We could rely on the adults to help because creating the bonfire helped them get rid of old broken furniture and anything else that would burn.

Children at the time couldn’t understand why Bonfire Night was not a holiday . .

“Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot; for there is a reason why gunpowder and treason should ne’er be forgot.”