In Poland bonfires are traditionally and still enthusiastic burned during Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Pentecost day and Saint John Night as Sobótki, ognie świętojańskie (Śląsk, Małopolska, Podkarpacie), Palinocka (Warmia, Mazury, Kaszuby) or Noc Kupały (Mazowsze and Podlasie) on 23/24 June. On 23 and 24 June, according to ancient custom, an immense number of Polish persons of both sexes repaired to the banks of the San (river), Vistula and Odra river, to consult Fate respecting their future fortunes, jumping through a fire on the Eve of Saint John's was a sure way to health. The leaping of the youths over fire (sobótka) must be a custom derived from remote antiquity. Jan Kochanowski, who died in 1584, mentions it in a song from an ancient tradition. Varro and Ovid relate, that in the Palilia, celebrated in honour of the goddess Pales, on 20 April, the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, the young Romans leaped over burning bundles of hay. In modern Italy, this kind of saltation is continued by the name of Sabatina, though Pope Sergius III prohibited it.
In the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries bonfires are lit on Guy Fawkes Night a yearly celebration held on the evening of 5 November to mark the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the House of Lords in London.
In Northern Ireland bonfires are lit on Halloween, 31 October. and each 11 July, bonfires are lit by many Protestant communities to celebrate the victory of Williamite forces at the Battle of the Boyne, which took place on 12 July 1690. This is often called the "Eleventh night". Bonfires have also been lit by Catholic communities on 9 August since 1972 to protest and commemorate Internment.
In Northern Ireland, bonfires are lit on Halloween, 31 October, and each 11 July, bonfires are lit by many Protestant communities to celebrate the victory of Williamite forces at the Battle of the Boyne, which took place on 12 July 1690. This is often called the "Eleventh night". Bonfires have also been lit by Catholic communities on 9 August since 1972 to protest and commemorate Internment.
In 1755 Samuel Johnson misattributed the origin of the word as a compound of the French "bon" ("good") and the English "fire" in A Dictionary of the English Language.
Bonfire traditions of early spring, lit on the Sunday following Ash Wednesday (Funkensonntag, otherwise called Quadragesima Sunday), are widespread throughout the Alemannic German speaking regions of Europe and in parts of France. The burning of "winter in effigy" at the Sechseläuten in Zürich (introduced in 1902) is inspired by this Alemannic tradition. In Austria, the custom of the "Osterfeuer" or Easter fires is widespread, but also regulated in some cities, districts and countries to hold down the resulting annual peak of PM10-dust emission. There are also "Sonnwendfeuer" (solstice fires) ignited on the evening of 21 June.
(See Aggie Bonfire) One of the oldest traditions at Texas A&M University involves the building of a bonfire by students to be burnt before their annual game against The University of Texas. The tradition began in 1909 as little more than a burning trash pile. Eventually students began clearing land in the area, by hand, to harvest thousands of logs needed for its construction. In 1969 Aggie Bonfire set a Guinness world record for tallest bonfire at 109 feet. In 1999, there was an accident where the stack collapsed during construction, killing 12 people and injuring 27 others. The accident led to the university to no longer sanction the building of Bonfire. Since 2002, the student-sponsored group Student Bonfire began building an annual bonfire in the spirit of the original.