Entry #12: Festival Days

One of the more interesting parts of living in another country is being exposed to new and interesting festivals. Admittedly in England, many of the holidays are similar to those that we are familiar with, but many are also quite different. Over the course of the last two weeks, Birmingham has been festival central and with the Christmas season already beginning here (early, just like in Canada), the next two months promise to be equally memorable.

The festivals began here with a North American import, Halloween. Although Jenn’s English mother swears that the first Halloween she encountered was in Canada, the holiday is now widely celebrated across the pond as well. It seems that it was imported some time in the nineties and therefore its major purpose here is similar to its purpose in North America: rampant consumerism. I have never seen so many cheap, tacky Halloween items as I saw in October here. Not surprisingly, since drunken twenty somethings do it every weekend anyways, dressing up is a big thing and Jenn and I even got into the act by attending a fancy dress party as Antony and Cleopatra (in horribly inaccurate and homemade costumes I might point out).

Hot on the heels of Halloween came November, November, November the fifth and Bonfire Night. If you were like me and had any experience with this holiday in your own youth, you might know it as Guy Fawkes day where you make a Guy Fawkes (or papal) effigy and burn it in commemoration of the failed gunpowder plot of 1605. Although the historical background of this celebration intrigues me, no one in Britain seems to remember it. In fact years ago Guy Fawkes day became simply Bonfire Night when stadiums are filled, bonfires are light, fireworks are set off, and a good time is had by all. Since November the fifth doesn’t always fall on a weekend celebrations get spread out over the week preceding it. The week following Bonfire night includes the Hindu celebration of Divali in which more fireworks are set off. This meant for the better part of a week Jenn and I experienced the audio track of a war zone on a nightly basis. Divali is a big thing here as such a high proportion of the population is Indian. In fact in one of my supply teaching stops I got to help a year four class prepare for their Divali play and therefore got a little bit of background into what the festival is celebrating (if you're curious, it has to do with the Hindu heroes Rama and Sita).

Following this week or so of joyous and raucous celebration came a more somber and much more familiar holiday. Just like in Canada, Remembrance day is celebrated on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month. Unlike in Canada however, in this country it seems to be a much bigger and much more poignant affair. Jenn and I decided to attend the city’s Remembrance day service outside the war memorial in one of Birmingham’s main squares. The service was packed and as we arrived late, we didn’t have much of a view. From what we saw however, we could tell that this was something wholly different. The service included a parade of both veterans and active soldiers, a massive wreath laying, a full military band, a gun salute, five minutes of silence and countless prayers and appeals for both the living and the dead as well as calls for humanity to live in peace for all time. Many of you might say that these are all common occurrences in similar Remembrance Day ceremonies throughout Canada and you would be right, but there was something about this ceremony and the way it was celebrated that was wholly different from what we’ve ever experienced in our own land.

Firstly, the ceremony was far more religious than any public ceremony ever is in Canada. Religion, whether it be Christian, Hindu, Muslim or anything else, is an openly talked about, if not a flaunted thing over here. Religious Education is part of the school curriculum and is basically world religions and Christian Education rolled into one. The Birmingham Central Mosque, near one of my usual supply teaching schools, broadcasts calls to prayer throughout the neighbourhood. Jenn and I can still remember a time in Canadian when we had Christmas concerts and sang Christmas carols , but that time has past as Canada has become an increasingly secular country for better or for worse. They would never think of calling it a "seasonal concert" in this country, just as they don’t blink an eye when commemorating in schools the Muslim festival of Eid or the Hindu festival of Divali. This Remembrance Day ceremony was Anglican to the core, with the “Lord Jesus” invoked several times in pray, and even a recitation of the Lord's Prayer. I’m not saying in any way that this was somehow wrong, I’m just saying that until you're actually over here you can’t really understand just how religiously oriented England still is.

Although the religious aspect of the ceremony was different from most I’ve experienced in Canada, it was neither the only nor the biggest difference. By far the thing that shaped and set apart this ceremony, was that these people had actually experienced the wars they were commemorating. I’m not saying that the World Wars didn’t profoundly affect Canadian lives, but somehow it was different to be around people that could actually remember Birmingham being evacuated and London being bombed. These people weren’t just fighting for their Allies and the good of humanity, they were fighting for their own country and somehow the power of that permeated the somberness of the ceremony in a way I will never forget.

As the years push further and further away from the World Wars and fewer and fewer veterans remain among us, I fear that the Remembrance Day is sadly becoming a forgotten day. In my own life I have come to question the purpose of the day and the way we phrase our words of remembrance. I can still remember working for a German Canadian at the St. Lawrence Market on one Remembrance Day several years ago. I had the unfortunate task of dealing with a crying customer who wanted to take out his wrath on my boss for the events of the second World War. In that moment, I was struck by the fact that there are also many innocent Germans who were fighting for their own country regardless of their own political ideologies who also need to be remembered. In a time when wars, rightly or wrongly, are once again being fought seemingly by choice rather than necessity, it is also hard to trust in the bravado that Remembrance Day is all about making sure we live in peace forevermore. Sadly I feel this has often made me, and probably other young people like me, rather disillusioned to the whole concept of the day which in itself doesn’t solve any problems.

I took something away from this year's Remembrance Day ceremony. I took away a new hope and a new commitment to keep the day special in my heart and strive to see that the world does live up to those lofty claims of desiring peace and goodwill throughout the world. That may seem corny but sometimes I think the world just might be a better place if everyone was a little corny every once in a while.