illuminations

When chief engineer Brian Fraser urged the crew to cut back on the illuminations, the ship's radio officer wrote him a cheeky reply - in rhyme.

The illuminations set off from the London Eye, and barges moored in a central area of the river featured more than 12,000 fireworks.

"We do have evidence that gold and silversmiths were also doing illuminations in manuscripts at this time, for example," Dr Geake said.

Huge effort is poured into the festive illuminations.

Also as part of Season of the Force, Disneyland will cement Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as a fireworks viewing destination with the debut of what it describes as “galactic music” during the evening illuminations.