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Humanist Families' Weekend 2005 - York

After dinner we all gathered in the TV Lounge in the Annex, which we had reserved for our party. In theory, BHA Chair Sam Rimmer was to be the speaker, but her plan was to say as little as possible beyond kick-starting a discussion about what more the HFN could do in the future. This included more facilities on the website, personalised tee-shirts and a mad auction over next year's venue ("London!", "Brighton!", "The Lake District!"...). The youngsters soon broke away and started to consolidate their friendship groups for the weekend.

On Saturday morning after breakfast we all walked into the centre of York together along the river bank, and thence to the York Castle Museum. "Take a walk back in time," said the publicity material. You could do this quite literally along the Edwardian and Victorian streets. There were sample rooms from quite recent eras, which older members of the party could recognise as resembling their parents' or grandparents' houses. And the history of sanitation always has a fascination as it is something everybody can relate to.

Then we gathered outside the museum in the sunshine to eat our packed lunches from the hostel. After lunch most of us were glad to rest our legs: some in the fairground-style 'boats' of the Yorvik Viking Experience; some on a real boat, enjoying a tour of York as seen from the river.

Once we had all made it back to the hostel, we gathered together again in the beautifully kept park owned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. First, the children tried out the superbly equipped playground. Then a group of both children and adults set up a rounders match in the open grassy area. One of the newest HFN members, Tim, was celebrating his fortieth birthday, and impressed everybody by shinning up a tree to rescue the ball when it got stuck there.

Amongst the activities there was much discussion and networking during the day. The religious images and propaganda surrounding our children 'even at toddler group' were of concern to all. However there was not universal enthusiasm for 'Humanist toddler groups', which some saw as splitting our divided society even more. Maybe the BHA's aim should be to make itself redundant, when we achieve a genuinely open society with no remaining privileges or discrimination on the basis of religion or belief. I don't quite agree with that. Certainly whilst religions are still a part of many people's lives, even without privilege, the non-religious will need the focus and framework for ethical thinking provided by Humanism. And even if in some future society religion and superstition have died out completely, that need will still remain.

Back at the hostel, after dinner, the adults sat down to listen to Chris Rowley of SAPERE and learn about the 'Philosophy for Children' courses which he teaches. Then we tried a sample session, discussing one of the questions we had derived from a story book.

After breakfast on the Sunday morning, Chris took the children for a philosophy session whilst the adults completed their packing. Then we had the now traditional group photographs on the steps before saying our goodbyes.

Then several of the families spent the rest of Sunday morning at the National Railway Museum, which was handy for those of us who would be travelling home by train in the afternoon, especially as it had spacious left luggage lockers. We arrived just in time for a turntable demonstration. Sadly, we could not see everything in this extensive national collection in a relatively short visit, but highlights included the Japanese Bullet Train, the mail trains, the place where you could walk underneath a train and a simulator ride from London to Brighton in four minutes. As Loughburians, we felt proud to see the display which revealed our town to be the destination of the first ever Thomas Cook package tour. In the 'Warehouse' I spotted one of the 'ARIADNE' nameplates cast for the Woodhead Electric locomotive which shares my name. There are four of these in existence: two on the locomotive in Manchester and one in our living room. Sophie was disappointed to find no Virgin Voyager to kick. She has become very fed up with the endemic overcrowding on these trains.

Then we were off to eat our packed lunches on yet another packed VV, and look forward to next year.