BONFIRE NIGHT - NOVEMBER 5th

This popular British rhyme is often spoken on Bonfire Night, in memory of the Gunpowder Plot:

Remember, remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason that gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

'Guy Fawkes Day' also known as 'Bonfire Night' or 'Fireworks Night' by some, marks the date, November 5, 1605, when Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators attempted to kill King James I and the Members of Parliament and to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

This conspiracy arose as a reaction to the persecution of Catholics under the rule of King James, a Protestant. Infuriated by the failure of King James, the son of the passionately Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, to grant more toleration to Catholics. Four other Catholics joined with Fawkes in his plans including Robert Catesby. Catesby made a fatal error and invited other Catholics to join the plot until there were 60 plotters in all, you try keeping a secret when 60 people know about it.

Thomas Percy rented a cellar beneath the Palace of Westminster and 36 barrels of gunpowder were placed in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament. But Francis Tresham betrayed the conspiracy in a letter to his brother-in-law Lord Monteagle, warning him not to attend parliament. Monteagle told the government and Fawkes was caught red handed in the cellars under Parliament, with a box of matches in his pocket and a guilty expression on his face! His fellow conspirators fled but many were killed or arrested and 9 members of the 60+ plotters, including Fawkes, were hung, drawn and quartered in January 1606.

 

Children used to make stuffed figures with masks as effigies of Guy Fawkes. They would call these figures guys and display them in the streets, using the traditional formula of "A penny for the guy" when asking passersby for money (which was spent on fireworks or wood for the bonfire). The guys then became the centre-piece of bonfires on the night of November 5 when fireworks light up the sky over most of Britain.