November 5th aka Bonfire Night aka Guy Fawkes Night, is a somewhat highly peculiar but totally British tradition, commemorating the Gunpowder plot; a foiled terrorist attack on the ruling parliament of King James 1st.
I won’t bore you with the history (although it’s ever so interesting) only to say that every child in the UK knows about Guy Fawkes and spends ages assembling a burnable effigy, annoying people in shopping centres all over the country with pleas of ‘Penny For The Guy’ before throwing the poor thing on the Bonfire and burning it to smithereens.
In reality, Guy suffered a worse fate; he and his co-conspirators were hung, drawn and quartered with their heads and various other organs being displayed at various junctures in Ol’ London town, as a warning to fellow dissidents not to try the same prank.England would have been a very different place today had they succeeded…
Today’s way of thinking may have you consider that it’s not really a nice thing to celebrate, but hey that’s what we do here in Blighty, and not only do we have a glorious bonfire, but we also have lovely toffee apples, black peas, hot chestnuts and other assorted bonfire noms as we wave our sparklers and ‘Ooh’ and ‘Aah’ at the fireworks blasting in the sky above our enraptured faces.
It’s not always practical in real life to have your own bonfire and firework display (Pets don’t tend to like them, and neither does the Fire Brigade for some reason; it is their busiest night of the year after all) But fear not firework freaks! You can do JUST the same in Second Life without the expense, the smell, the noise and the torrential rain that always threatens to spoil play ( Looks like it’s going to this year too, I’ve checked the forecast)
I had a look on the SLMarketplace and found some corking freebies, but for just a couple of hundred lindens you can go the whole hog and have a proper bonfire party!
For the fireworks I cannot recommend enough the Magic Light Fireworks HUD.
It claims to be best value for money, and it is JUST that at L$150. It consists very simply of a hud that you wear on screen. You press ‘Rez’, and an (empty!) wine bottle rezzes before you, and after a few clicks a rocket appears, shoots up in to the sky and explodes in a fiery display of sparkles and glitter galore. It sounds totally authentic, comes with a really easy to understand notecard and is an essential purchase for an accurate November 5th experience
I also needed a bonfire, and they are ten-a-penny in world, but I needed one with a guy. For a few seconds I wondered if I would actually be able to find such a thing, but fear not, you can find EVERYTHING in Second Life and of course, I found my bonfire AND my guy as a package deal! For just L$100 you get the full monty in a temp rez outfit, featuring smoke, fire and sound effects as well as an effigy of Guy himself. I’m totally impressed by this, and the write-up in the marketplace shows that the creators know their stuff too! Bonus points there methinks!
So, for L$250 you can have a corking bonfire party, but wait, there are some GREAT freebies to be had too!
Check out the ‘Basic Elements FREE Basic display’ and also the T3 Firework launcher– a very basic prop, but one that easily fulfils your need to fire rockets. It’s a total pyromaniac treat, and because Bonfire Night is on a Friday this year, you can enjoy it all the way through the weekend too!
Penny for the Guy?
Kittywitchin' 