 In his book "The King's Shilling," Gordon Johnson Walker remembered how the feu-de-joie was incorporated into the annual ceremony held on the first day of every New Year when the reigning Monarch was proclaimed ‘Emperor of India’.This was known as the Proclamation Parade - "Each soldier had a blank cartridge, which, on the command, he would load into his rifle and fire a salute known as a 'feu-de-joie', which set the seal on the proceedings.