For the love of John
so I am having a nice relaxing time in the Spanish city and all of a sudden Bang and then another and another, What the F€$K?
well it seem that it is Spanish midsummer and the festival of St. John the baptist. A time to celebrate the start of the summer, to eat sweet bread products covered with multiple coloured things and to launch and throw fireworks with joyful abandon for all EU health and safety laws and advice. What a joy, a night where children are up and about till sunrise (well that's not so joyful) and everyone joins in with gay abandon. The next day is a public holiday, no matter what day of the week it might be, so who cares if you have one or two absinthes to many, sleep in wake up drunk and take it easy. It is so nice to see a whole city celebrate a pagan festival under the guise of Christianity, to see a whole city celebrate in such a care free way and then once all the celebrating is done to see them recover altogether as well.
This got me to thinking when do we, the British, celebrate in such a way? When do we let ourselves go? When do we get to have collective fun with fireworks that isn't watched from behind a metal barrier? To celebrate midsummer we, those of us who remember, have the time and money, go to Glastonbury, a festival which seems to have now lost all potential for the spontaneity and the sublime through the over commercialisation and over involvement from forces outside of the original idea, that of people in a field celebrating the summer solstice. What do we as a country do to celebrate our national day? I am sure that most countries do more than watch the trooping of the colour on Tv. We seem all to happy to dive into a pint of Guinness on March the 17th but when it come to April the 23rd we just ignore it, it's not even a national holiday, what about diving into shots of ale and pints of gin for once, to don the cross and have some fun all for the sake of being one nation, no matter what your origins, on one small island. Let's not forget that as well as being St. Georges day, April the 23rd is also Shakespeare's birthday and the day he died, it's also my mums birthday if you need another reason to celebrate, hell why not make it king Arthur's and Robin Hoods birthday as well. and when it comes to the celebrations let us not stand behind a fence and Oooohhhhh and Aaaarrrrrr at someone else having all the fun, let's get involved, let's remember to have fun. Last year I had a fantastic fireworks night, friends, alcohol, food, many fireworks and a cardboard screen, because my backyard is very small and we might have been a little close, say 2-3ft. What would have made it better? More friends, a nation full of friends.
so next time there's a reason to celebrate kick out the nanny state, ignore what you are told to do and have fun. I am not saying be silly, don't go sticking fireworks up each others arses but if you live in the country stick them in a cow pat and play chicken ( a childhood reference) just remember that we can do what we want, no harm to others but that does not mean others can't join in. So for the love of John kick down those metal fences get naked and get down. Why? Because we can.
THAT IS ALL
P.s keep you eyes peeled a revamp soon so as to include video and photos. Oooooohh fancy.
