Thistly shortbread

My friends arrived for an afternoon of jigsaw puzzles while we solved the problems of our school district (the world is next). We had tea and I made shortbread several times over which was devoured hot from the oven each time. Most gratifying :)
Tonight I set off to St. Marks cathedral to their Evensong service which promised a 'Burning of the Greens' afterward. St. Marks is a fortress-like structure, strong and enormous and perpetually chilled inside. The columns are solid and huge, the ceiling is pegged carved cavernous beams that tower high overhead suspended from which are oil chandeliers that glow dimly in the gloomy upper recesses. It's a marvelous old building, if not haunted it should be, and it takes about 20 minutes to descend all the stairs to the basement.
I would say that I'm not sure what I was expecting from this "Burning of the Greens", but that would not be true, I do know what I was expecting~and it was not 2 guys in sport coats with a Webber BBQ, lighter fluid and 1 small branch from a Douglas Fir.
Something billing itself as a 'bonfire' evokes in me a 10 foot pyre of raging flames licking contemptuously upward, mocking the darkness, pushing outward the boundaries of winter and lack at this most needy and hopeful time of the year! I was gleefully anticipating the excitement of something pagan, something old, venerated, medieval.
But nope. 2 guys, 2 sport coats and slacks, a BBQ, 1 branch and a container of lighter fluid. 
Wow.
My vision deflated I drove home to chocolate.
Next year I'm doing my own. And I'm not using my BBQ!