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Bonfires- outdated pagan practices

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  • 06-09-2008 3:26pm
    #1
    Nerin
    Registered Users Posts: 10,523 ✭✭✭✭


    in the Irish independent today, someone wrote in about banning bonfires, as it is an outdated pagan practice.

    opinions?


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    #2
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    Link ?


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    #3
    Sandwich
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,253 ✭✭✭Sandwich


    No more outdated than any of the rituals associted with Jesus Christ or other assorted gods for example.
    But let people do it if they like to I say.

    Had the contributor any more case to make than it being 'outdated'?


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    #4
    Nerin
    Registered Users Posts: 10,523 ✭✭✭✭Nerin


    Thaedydal wrote: »
    Link ?
    twas in the paper :p letters to the editor section


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    #5
    foxhoundone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 73 ✭✭foxhoundone


    i thought bonfires were lite as a warning of incoming invaders from the sea, to rally the peaple against the vicking hoardes..
    but as you know bonfires are lite in the north to celibrate the twelve, these are becoming rarer,.. cause everone {99%} is enjoying the peace process, and losing interest in the whole shannigans , but if an article like this, was put in the BELFAST TELE, for example.. it would scare monger many unionst,s /loyalists back to paisleys back yard {we dont want that do we??} maybe somone is testing the water me thinks


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    #6
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    Bone fire and Bel fires have always had a place and it's not to do with watch fires which were about invaders.


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    #7
    Toots
    Administrators, Business & Finance Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,905 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Toots


    I think bonfires have gotten a lot of bad press over the years, mainly due to the antics of scumbags on Halloween night. I know last year's bonfire in the estate beside me got totally out of control, with drunken kids throwing anything they could lay hands on into it (trolleys, tyres, wheelie bins, you name it). IMO, there's nothing religious about drunken vandalism. But bonfires do have a part in pagan rituals, and I think banning them would be akin to banning the Catholic Easter fires, or the equivalent in other religions.


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    #8
    NeilJ
    Registered Users Posts: 135 ✭✭NeilJ


    I think a big part of the problem, at least in urban areas, is that there often is not a suitable place to stage a bonfire even if it is being handled properly.


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    #9
    Toots
    Administrators, Business & Finance Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,905 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Toots


    That's true too. I've often seen bonfires lighting on small green areas beside houses (a friend of mine lives in an 'end house' and her garden shed burnt down a couple of years ago when burning debris from the bonfire blew into her garden) but the majority of these seem, again, to be lit by teenagers/young adults who are often under the influence of alcohol.


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    #10
    Elle Victorine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 314 ✭✭Elle Victorine


    I think whoever wrote that was just saying what is for one is for all. Just because a scumbag lights a fire and acts like an *ss it doesn't mean he/she is engaging in ritual practice or pagan practice. Completely agree with toots85, there's nothing religious about drunken vandalism.


    They can be very dangerous and have had some negative results but more oft than not in my experience this has been a result of people throwing anything they can find on a fire while polluted. Not safe and hardly ritual is you ask me.


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    #11
    Nerin
    Registered Users Posts: 10,523 ✭✭✭✭Nerin


    Elle Victorine wrote: »
    I think whoever wrote that was just saying what is for one is for all. Just because a scumbag lights a fire and acts like an *ss it doesn't mean he/she is engaging in ritual practice or pagan practice. Completely agree with toots85, there's nothing religious about drunken vandalism.


    They can be very dangerous and have had some negative results but more oft than not in my experience this has been a result of people throwing anything they can find on a fire while polluted. Not safe and hardly ritual is you ask me.

    yes,but turning that around- just because scumbags act like that doesn't mean everyone else should suffer.


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    #12
    Elle Victorine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 314 ✭✭Elle Victorine


    I don't believe I said anybody should suffer. That goes for the person who is on the other end of a melted tire that some person threw into the thing. It also goes for those who engage in them as a ritual practice. They shouldn't be restricted because some people have been negligent when they were drunk.

    Then again it only takes one to ruin it for everybody else I guess. However I don't believe it should be banned for the actions of a few an I think that's what you thought I meant.


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    #13
    TargetWidow
    Registered Users Posts: 559 ✭✭✭TargetWidow


    Can someone maybe give a little of the Pagan significance of Bonfires please or a link to where I can go a look it up? I'm exploring my paganism more and more since I had my first child recently. I've always loved a bonfire, but it hardly seems in keeping with taking care of mother nature these days the way car tires are collected for months (accruing hundreds sometimes) to be burnt on Halloween. Like I said. I love a bonfire but trying to tell people they shouldn't burn rubber tires is like banging your head off of a brick wall. Beavis and Butthead spring to mind "fire, fire! he he he!!" :eek:


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    #14
    lostexpectation
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,082 ✭✭✭lostexpectation


    in the north they want to start slightly more eco friendly beacons, rasied off the ground, things that be lit and dowsed and lit again.


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    #15
    the_syco
    Registered Users Posts: 37,295 ✭✭✭✭the_syco


    Nerin wrote: »
    in the Irish independent today, someone wrote in about banning bonfires, as it is an outdated pagan practice.

    opinions?
    Lol. Bonfires are illegal. The police just turn a blind eye to them every Halloween.


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    #16
    Nodin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    Nerin wrote: »
    in the Irish independent today, someone wrote in about banning bonfires, as it is an outdated pagan practice.

    opinions?


    Currently theres 300 plus dead in Gaza, homeless on the streets of Dublin, and apparently (over recent years) an increased tendency for people to give up or abandon pets. Each and every one of those is more worthy of public expenditure, time and legislation.

    Theres something very primal about gathering round the fire, be it a large public one or otherwise, and provided its handled in a relatively safe manner, I see no reason why future generations should be deprived of it, regardless of whether they be Orangemen or Fenians, Pagans or young folk having a bit of craic.


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    #17
    Svenolsen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 65 ✭✭Svenolsen


    If you want REAL bonfires...go to Iceland:

    http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/enlarge/vestmannaeyjar-bonfire_pod_image.html

    (No,that's not their banks they are burning! ):

    .


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    #18
    cyberwolf77
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 47,799 Mod ✭✭✭✭cyberwolf77


    TargetWidow wrote: »
    Can someone maybe give a little of the Pagan significance of Bonfires please or a link to where I can go a look it up? I'm exploring my paganism more and more since I had my first child recently. I've always loved a bonfire, but it hardly seems in keeping with taking care of mother nature these days the way car tires are collected for months (accruing hundreds sometimes) to be burnt on Halloween. Like I said. I love a bonfire but trying to tell people they shouldn't burn rubber tires is like banging your head off of a brick wall. Beavis and Butthead spring to mind "fire, fire! he he he!!" :eek:
    Best I can find as a jumping off point.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltaine


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    #19
    Nodin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    Svenolsen wrote: »
    If you want REAL bonfires...go to Iceland:

    http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/enlarge/vestmannaeyjar-bonfire_pod_image.html

    (No,that's not their banks they are burning! ):

    .

    Proper order...all wood pallets too....


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