Guy Fawkes Day
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Wikipedia-Article "Guy Fawkes Day"
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night and Plot Night, is an annual celebration (but not a public holiday) on the evening of the 5th of November primarily in the United Kingdom, but also in New Zealand, South Africa, the province of Newfoundland (Canada), and formerly in Australia. It celebrates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London on the evening of 5 November 1605, when the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) was within its walls. Some believe the nearness of the event to the pre-Christian festival of Samhain Eve and Halloween is significant, but it is generally agreed that this is a coincidence.
The celebrations, which in the United Kingdom take place in towns and villages across the country, involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires on which "guys", or dummies, representing, Guy Fawkes, the most famous of the conspirators are burnt. Before the fifth, children use the dummies to beg for money with the chant "Penny for the guy", but this tradition is no longer as popular as it once was. The night is closely associated with the popular rhyme which begins:
- Remember, remember the fifth of November,
- gunpowder, treason and plot,
- I see no reason why gunpowder treason
- should ever be forgot.
- Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
- 'twas his intent
- to blow up the King and the Parliament.
- Three score barrels of powder below,
- Poor old England to overthrow:
- By God's providence he was catch'd
- With a dark lantern and burning match.
- Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
- Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
- Hip hip hoorah!
These verses are usually left off modern day recitations of the poem:
- A penny loaf to feed the Pope.
- A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
- A pint of beer to rinse it down.
- A faggot of sticks to burn him.
- Burn him in a tub of tar.
- Burn him like a blazing star.
- Burn his body from his head.
- Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
- Hip hip hoorah!
- Hip hip hoorah!
It is also the subject of the song "Remember" by John Lennon, on the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
In the United Kingdom, there are several other traditions that accompany Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night: the eating of bonfire toffee, a dark type of toffee made with black treacle; parkin, a cake made with the same black treacle; toffee apples, the traditional 'apple lollipop', which consists of an apple coated in toffee on top of a stick; and baked potatoes, which are wrapped in foil and cooked in the bonfire.
In recent years it has also become the main night for both amateur and official fireworks displays in the UK. It is only since about 2000 that fireworks have been used widely other than on Bonfire night, though they have always been available for the couple of months surrounding the 5th.
Despite the nature of the events commemorated, little political or sectarian significance is attached to Bonfire Night in modern times. The later verses of "Remember, remember...", which express violent anti-Catholic sentiment, are not widely recalled. Bonfire night is now just as celebrated within the United Kingdom's Catholic communities. The once common practice of burning effigies of the Pope is now largely discontinued (except at Lewes, where the night has additional significance).
In Australia, Guy Fawkes Night (commonly called "cracker night" as a reference to the use of fireworks) was widely celebrated until the 1960s, but has now almost completely died out. This is partly because state governments banned the commercial sale of fireworks in the 1970s to prevent their misuse (many people used them to blow up letterboxes and other objects causing injury to others), and partly because of growing disapproval of the anti-Catholic connotations of the night.