There are also fireworks in London, on the Thames near the London Eye which, combined with Trafalgar Square and a thousand clubs, cause an impenetrable traffic jam that goes on for several hours afterwards, hopefully cleared by the start of the New Year’s Day Parade in the West End involving 10,000 people, including a display from each of London’s 32 boroughs, hundreds of marching American school kids, and the statutory Pearly Kings and Queens.
In Queensferry they take a ‘Loony Dook’ in the River Forth. At Mappleton they jump off a bridge into the River Dove. In Hubberholme they hold a Candle Auction for a piece of land. On 6 January there is a titanic struggle called the Haxey Hood Game and on that same Twelfth Night the cast of the current show at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane enjoy their Baddeley Cake in ‘full costume and make-up’.
