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Bonfires: A nostalgic country pastime
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In the country with cinemas few and far between, bonfires are a time-honoured tradition
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By Beth Powning
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On a quiet summer's night, the pulsing glow and crackle of a bonfire is an irresistible lure. It draws people of all ages, attracting every gaze to its heart. As sparks shoot into the night, fire's transformative power is unendingly evocative. Just as the earliest peoples used fire as a nucleus for human grouping, or as a sacrificial pyre on which to burn bones (‘bonfire' derives from ‘bone' and ‘fire'), so today's bonfire serves as a spiritual centre, inducing singing, storytelling, cooking, or just companionable contemplation.
Punky lumber, scraps from building projects, driftwood, the slash from a cleared bank or felled tree: all is saved, waiting for the perfect time. It could be a misty spring evening in a damp field, or a long summer's night on a beach. Grass is scraped away, and a small starter fire of paper and kindling is laid, with the larger material tented on top. Bonfires, unlike a sedate campfire, are generally massive, perhaps harking back to the Celtic celebration of Samhain, when people extinguished their own small hearth fires and gathered on sacred hilltops to build bonfires. The larger and more ferocious the fire, the better chance there was of frightening away evil spirits.
Whenever a bonfire is built, it's important to keep in mind several things: weather (is the wind going to rise?), distance from buildings, whether or not the surrounding grass is dry and might catch fire, and if there's any other combustible material nearby (dead trees and bushes, for example). Don't burn pressure-treated wood. Check to see if a permit is necessary. Make sure not to wear flammable clothing, or favourite fleeces or parkas, since sparks make peppery holes. Keep a supply of fresh wood nearby, since once a bonfire begins to rage, it needs frequent feeding; and make sure there's a hose handy.
Holding marshmallows on peeled green sticks, fishing foiled cobs of corn and potatoes from ashes, the bonfire awakens and preserves our deepest, strongest instincts-protection, sustenance, community.
If you want to have a bonfire
Before you strike that match, make sure your fiery family gathering is by the book. Fire control is a serious matter and open-air burning is strictly regulated, so if you're planning a bonfire (even if it's on your own lakefront property), make sure you have authorization from your fire department. If you plan on singing your kumbayas around a sanctioned pit at a public beach or park, you may still need permission from your department of parks and recreation. Contact your city's fire services division for information to bonfire safely.
Beth Powning is the author of Edge Seasons and The Hatbox Letters, from Vintage Canada.
This article originally appeared in the September 2008 issue.
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