Allendale tar barrels.
The people of Allendale, Northumberland, welcome the
New Year
in a spectacular way with their procession of blazing
tar barrels
. During the evening, men in home-made costume (the
guisers
) visit the town's pubs and shortly before midnight assemble for the procession which is the focal point of the custom. The barrels are actually one end of a wooden barrel, about twelve inches deep, filled with wood and shavings soaked in paraffin. Once the barrels are alight, the procession follows the town band round the streets and back to the market-place, where an unlit bonfire awaits them. After circling the fire, and at the stroke of midnight, some of the barrels are ...