The party we don't have

Here in Beijing, it seems, we celebrate just about every kind of holiday from every nation on the planet.... except Guy Fawkes Night (November 5th, the big firework festival in England).   There aren't many things about 'home' that I get wistful about, but this is one of them.  It's one of the best parties of the year, and it just doesn't happen here.  Where's the British Embassy when you need it?  (Really, where is the British Embassy, ever, when you need it?)   Oh, sure, one of the international schools usually puts on something over the weekend - but that's the weekend, not now.  And it'll be in loathesome Shunyi (not part of China at all, but a little transplant of European or North American suburbia - and about as geographically remote!).  And it'll be for the kids - so the adult hankering to get off-your-face drunk and blow shit up would have to be strictly reined in.   It would be nice to look at a REALLY BIG BONFIRE, though.  Maybe I'll choke back my scorn for Shunyi for one evening, after all.     [I think the biggest and best bonfire I've ever seen was the creation of my compadre the Mothman.  He constructed it out of railway sleepers, and it must have been well over 10ft high.  Oh, when shall I see its like again?]