Things, Ideas & People . . .

Talking with someone the other day about having a bonfire made us think, where did the word bon fire come from. We like many assumed it might be French as in "bon" meaning "good" fire to celebrate or gather around. It actually dates way back, and is found in middle English, meaning bone fire or fire of bones. Somewhere over the past centuries it has evolved to bonfire. Fire of bones was sometimes used to worship saints as far back as 1486. Another refer ence was that livestock would be driven between two such bone fires and the acrid smoke would drive off parasites. But . . . good fire works too, much better for marshmallows, we would think.