A Promotional address is at the end of this page. The streets are thronged with people in festive mood who have gathered expectantly to see a spectacle unsurpassed in the rest of England. As the Bonfire Societies parade through the streets, their members bedecked in magnificent costumes, the spectators stand entranced by the splendour and pageantry of the occasion. There will also be those who wonder why.
All people have their special days when events from the past are celebrated in some traditional way.
We of the Cliffe Bonfire Society hold our celebrations of remembrance in light hearted vein, but do not allow this to distract us from the fundamental reasons for our celebrations. By our activities on the 'Fifth', we desire to remind people of the religious antagonisms of a bygone age and in particular, to spotlight specific events which were the outcome. By our bonfires and our seventeen blazing crosses we recall to mind the fires that burnt to death the Protestant Martyrs outside the Star Inn, Lewes, during the Marian Persecutions of the 16th century, fires that burned into people's hearts a hatred of tyranny which has ensured for us our freedom of thought and conscience. Cape beyond Cape in endless range, those twinkling points of fire. And by 'The Fifth' we remember the discovery on 5th November 1605 of the Jesuit-inspired Gunpowder Plot to destroy England's Protestant King and Parliament.