[Jarred Santos]

Cracker Night​

Image Credit: Facebook / Australia Remember When

Today’s blast from the past is from an undated photograph of two fellas having the time of their lives on Cracker Night! According to its poster, people from Adelaide celebrate it on the 5th of November.

‘It was a pretty big event when we were kids growing up. Any available pocket money would be spent on penny bangers, jumping jacks, throw downs and the more expensive Catherine wheels and skyrockets,’ he said.

How about you? Do you remember celebrating Cracker Night? Tell us here!


If you have similar memories, post here on our Nostalgia/Yesterday's Australia forum!

 

[Nickcron]

How can I ever forget Cracka Night
My favourite night of the year that came with a birthday cake.
Ahh the days without govt regulation spoiling fun.
You want a law the govt happily oblige BUT don't complain later.

 

[Jillhelen]

Hello, yes I remember cracker night in my home town, Albury, all those years ago. It was always a fun night but cold. I can’t remember any injuries, I’m thinking we had more common sense back then only sparklers and bangers, can’t think of their names.
I now live in NT and we celebrate fireworks every 1st July. Most enjoy the night, no bonfires to keep warm by, it’s not that chilly up here. The delight we see in the young ones faces is lovely. Sad for the pets. Idiots letting left overs off nights and days later.
The cost is out of this world, lucky we have sharing neighbours as some families don’t have the money
Seeing them shower the night sky with the colours and sounds

 

[Presley1]

Wasn't cracker ñight called guy fox night

 

[Jillhelen]

Guy Fawkes, the only man who tried to enter Parliament House with honourable intentions (British)
Yes it was, but to us kids it was cracker night

 

[starrysnan]

I remember Guy Fawkes night in England when you could go into a shop like the newsagent and buy your fireworks. Dad was in charge of lighting them as we were under ten. I liked the catherine wheels he nailed to the old shed and all the brilliant colours. We let off rockets putting them in an old milk bottle and watching them take off. Not as professional as displays these days but lots of fun nevertheless.

 

[Brody]

Wasn't cracker ñight called guy fox night

 

[Brody]

A short answer: yes it was Guy Faux night. I'm not too sure of the spelling of the last word. We called it Cracker Night.
From memory it had something to do with Guy Faux trying to set fire to
Something important maybe Parliament
House or some other major building.
Anyway it was connected to England not anything to do with us
I'm sure Google would know. Tell us what you find I for one would like to know.

 

[margaretritchie48]

Been from England we called it Bonfire Night as we had big bonfires everywhere. As a child we would go "chumping" and collect wood etc to burn. One year we burnt an old piano that my dad had. We used to make A GUY FAWKES and ask for a penny from people who passed by to buy fireworks. We'd do jacket potatoes on the bonfire. Such good memories.

 

[magpie1]

It was Cracker Night back in our day..."always remember the 5th of November"...heaps of good fun in the backyard, with penny bungers and those 'bombs' thrippenny bungers, tom thumbs, small red crackers, sparklers, catherine wheels and lots of sky rockets of different sizes to let off from large soft drink bottles or milk bottles.....what a night it was, you could see and hear so many rockets in the sky, it was so much fun....UNTIL, young children all over Australia were getting serious injuries from crackers....so our Government eventually outlawed the sale of fireworks to the general public across the majority of the Country.

 

[roderickg@aussiebroadband]

Wasn't cracker ñight called guy fox night

Hahahaha fox.

 

[oldchook58]

We had a big bonfire across the road next to a paddock so heaps of space to let off some crackers. All the kids on the street would bring their crackers along and as soon as it got dark we would fire up the sky rockets and catherine wheels, so pretty at night. It was a pretty big event back then. You would be able to buy them at the corner shop easily. The big ones - the demons - were like a stick of gelignite, really dangerous but I think we were all too young to realise. They used to go off with a bang. You would have to be quick to get away once the fuse was lit!! There was penny bungers, double happys, tom thumbs, golden fountaine, thrown downs and lots of other ones. We had a blast to say the least. You wouldn't be able to do it today.

 

[Jarred Santos]

Always, always so lovely to read your recollections!

 

[Jarred Santos]

We had a big bonfire across the road next to a paddock so heaps of space to let off some crackers. All the kids on the street would bring their crackers along and as soon as it got dark we would fire up the sky rockets and catherine wheels, so pretty at night. It was a pretty big event back then. You would be able to buy them at the corner shop easily. The big ones - the demons - were like a stick of gelignite, really dangerous but I think we were all too young to realise. They used to go off with a bang. You would have to be quick to get away once the fuse was lit!! There was penny bungers, double happys, tom thumbs, golden fountaine, thrown downs and lots of other ones. We had a blast to say the least. You wouldn't be able to do it today.

'We had a blast to say the least,' I don't know if there's a pun here intended, but I sure smiled!

 

[magpie1]

We had a big bonfire across the road next to a paddock so heaps of space to let off some crackers. All the kids on the street would bring their crackers along and as soon as it got dark we would fire up the sky rockets and catherine wheels, so pretty at night. It was a pretty big event back then. You would be able to buy them at the corner shop easily. The big ones - the demons - were like a stick of gelignite, really dangerous but I think we were all too young to realise. They used to go off with a bang. You would have to be quick to get away once the fuse was lit!! There was penny bungers, double happys, tom thumbs, golden fountaine, thrown downs and lots of other ones. We had a blast to say the least. You wouldn't be able to do it today.

Dead right they were @oldchook58.... I once heard of a local lad that hated the local Milk Bar owner so bad for some reason, that late one night after cracker night, he took one of those big boys and 'taped' it to his large shop front window and blew it to smithereens. Actually saw the shop next day and the whole window was boarded up. Bloody Hell.

 

[oldchook58]

Dead right they were @oldchook58.... I once heard of a local lad that hated the local Milk Bar owner so bad for some reason, that late one night after cracker night, he took one of those big boys and 'taped' it to his large shop front window and blew it to smithereens. Actually saw the shop next day and the whole window was boarded up. Bloody Hell.

They used to make a mess! We used to put the big one on a stand, light it and put a can over the top of it then wait for it to go off - that can went up at least 20 meters? in the sky. It was a bit tricky when it didn't explode and you weren't quite sure whether the wick had stopped burning. I was going back to check on it and it went off and the can hit me in the chest ( I was OK). Mum never found out of course!The ones that failed were cut in two and they were made into "fizzers". My cousin had some sort of cracker blow up in his face and he had no eyebrows and no eyelashes. He was not OK.

 

[oldchook58]

It was Cracker Night back in our day..."always remember the 5th of November"...heaps of good fun in the backyard, with penny bungers and those 'bombs' thrippenny bungers, tom thumbs, small red crackers, sparklers, catherine wheels and lots of sky rockets of different sizes to let off from large soft drink bottles or milk bottles.....what a night it was, you could see and hear so many rockets in the sky, it was so much fun....UNTIL, young children all over Australia were getting serious injuries from crackers....so our Government eventually outlawed the sale of fireworks to the general public across the majority of the Country.

Yes it was always a big night to look forward to. It was alot of fun at the time and injuries did occur hence the ban on fireworks. A few mailboxes were blown up in our area.

 

[magpie1]

They used to make a mess! We used to put the big one on a stand, light it and put a can over the top of it then wait for it to go off - that can went up at least 20 meters? in the sky. It was a bit tricky when it didn't explode and you weren't quite sure whether the wick had stopped burning. I was going back to check on it and it went off and the can hit me in the chest ( I was OK). Mum never found out of course!The ones that failed were cut in two and they were made into "fizzers". My cousin had some sort of cracker blow up in his face and he had no eyebrows and no eyelashes. He was not OK.

Yep, we did the same with the empty cans, and had the same problem with them being very slow to go off sometimes, they really were a big cracker alright and really were too dangerous for kids, but you could buy yourself unlimited amounts of crackers from so many local shops it was amazing.....UNTIL, kids started getting seriously hurt more and more across the country.

 

[oldchook58]

The Tom Thumbs were good, we would let the whole pack off in one go - good fun! One on their own didn't make much of a bang, some kids would show off and let one off while holding it. Those big demons though - they were like dynamite. I still love watching fireworks today.

Yep, we did the same with the empty cans, and had the same problem with them being very slow to go off sometimes, they really were a big cracker alright and really were too dangerous for kids, but you could buy yourself unlimited amounts of crackers from so many local shops it was amazing.....UNTIL, kids started getting seriously hurt more and more across the country.