5.10 What is a Catherine Wheel?
In "Eternity Road," Ray sings: "Turning, spinning, catherine wheeling... ." A Catherine Wheel, in the UK, is a firework, named after the spiked wheel on which St. Catherine was tortured and martyred. It's made up of a long tube of chemical grunge that is sewn into a spiral. You nail it to a support, light the blue touch paper and retire (leave) ... fast. As the firework burns, it spins rapidly about its axis, sending out a rotating stream of colored sparks... Unless you didn't nail it on firmly enough, in which case it shoots off in some random direction and you have to duck/move pretty fast to avoid it. There was some talk of banning them a while back but we can't say for sure if you can still get them.