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Guy Fawkes Night (more commonly known as Bonfire Night, Cracker Night and sometimes Fireworks Night) is an annual celebration on the evening of the 5th of November. It celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605 in which a number of Roman Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, England.

It is primarily marked in the United Kingdom where it was compulsory, by Royal Decree, to celebrate the deliverance of the King until 1859, but also in former British colonies including New Zealand, parts of Canada, and parts of the British Caribbean.[citation needed] Bonfire Night was also common in Australia until the 1980s[citation needed], but it was held on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June some states (eg New South Wales) and Nov 5th in others (eg Victoria). The event occurred in England some 102 years before the Act Of Union between England and Scotland. Festivities are centred around the use of fireworks and the lighting of bonfires.

[edit] Local customs

[edit] United Kingdom

A Guy Fawkes Night firework display
A Guy Fawkes Night firework display

In the United Kingdom, celebrations take place in towns and villages across the country in the form of both private and civic events. They involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires on which "guys" are burnt. These "guys" are traditionally effigies of Guy Fawkes, the most famous of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. Although the night is celebrated in York (Fawkes' hometown) some there do not burn his effigy, most notably those from his old school.[1] Before the fifth, children traditionally use the "guys" to request a "penny for the guy" in order to raise funds with which to buy fireworks.

In the United Kingdom, there are several foods that are traditionally consumed on Guy Fawkes Night:

In the Black Country, it is a traditional night for eating groaty pudding.[citation needed]

In Sussex it is a major festival that centres on Lewes necessitating the closure of the town centre. The night also commemorates the Glorious Revolution and 17 local Protestant martyrs that were burnt at the stake during Marian Persecutions of the Catholic Queen Mary I[9]. The night begins with torchlight processions in costume by a number of local bonfire societies and culminates in six separate bonfires where effigies of Guy Fawkes, Pope Paul V and topical personalities are destroyed by firework and flame.

In Scotton, the locals do not burn effigies of Guy Fawkes due to the village's connection to him. Up until recently, the Catholic school Stonyhurst College, would avoid any celebration, because of their connection to the other plotters (three of them went to the school).

In Ottery St Mary, in Devon, burning barrels of tar are carried through the streets:

"Ottery St. Mary is internationally renowned for its tar barrels, an old custom said to have originated in the 17th century, and which is held on November 5th each year. Each of Ottery's central public houses sponsors a single barrel. In the weeks prior to the day of the event, November 5th, the barrels are soaked with tar. The barrels are lit outside each of the pubs in turn and once the flames begin to pour out, they are hoisted up onto local people's backs and shoulders. The streets and alleys around the pubs are packed with people, all eager to feel the lick of the barrels flame. Seventeen Barrels all in all are lit over the course of the evening. In the afternoon and early evening there are women's and boy's barrels, but as the evening progresses the barrels get larger and by midnight they weigh at least 30 kilos. A great sense of camaraderie exists between the 'Barrel Rollers', despite the fact that they tussle constantly for supremacy of the barrel. In most cases, generations of the same family carry the barrels and take great pride in doing so. ... Opinion differs as to the origin of this festival of fire, but the most widely accepted version is that it began as a pagan ritual that cleanses the streets of evil spirits.[10]

Guy Fawkes Night is less commonly celebrated in Northern Ireland, where autumn fireworks and bonfires are more commonly associated with Hallowe'en[11].

[edit] Canada

In Canada, Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night is still celebrated in various places. The tradition was planted along with other cultural practices of British colonists in the 19th century[12].

The celebration, however, has been modified over two centuries since arriving from the United Kingdom as the following reveals:

"The night is also still celebrated in Nanaimo, British Columbia. The custom was brought over by English coal miners that came to Nanaimo in the mid 1800s. They built very tall bonfires -- often 40 feet (12 metres) or taller, sometimes from "spare" railroad ties that they'd come across. Over the years in Nanaimo, by the 1960s the effigy of Guy Fawkes had disappeared, and so had the name -- it's just called "Bonfire Night" by the local children. Now (2006), the tradition has largely been lost altogether, and the few remaining celebrations that are held are mostly in private backyards."[13]

On the Atlantic side of Canada, home of Britain's oldest overseas colony, Newfoundland, Guy Fawkes bonfires are still burnt in many parts of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The celebrations are widespread enough to merit recent mention by the provincial Minister of Environment and Conservation:

Tom Osborne, Minister of Environment and Conservation, today asked the general public to keep safety and the environment in mind when holding bonfires this weekend to celebrate Guy Fawkes night. “Holding bonfires on Guy Fawkes night is still a tradition in many areas of our province and we are asking those participating in a bonfire this year to ensure they clean up their area, especially our beaches, when the festivities are over,” said Minister Osborne. “We should always be mindful of the importance of our environment and do our part to keep it clean at all times, including events like Guy Fawkes night.”"[14]

While not necessarily widely celebrated elsewhere in Canada, the story of Guy Fawkes and the original Gunpowder Plot is still taught to many Canadian students. One amusing outcome of this was a mock version of a Guy Fawkes plot to blow up the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa on 6 November, 2006. The updated "plot" was recorded on YouTube.[15]

Elsewhere in Ontario, Guy Fawkes Night observances based on the original tradition have also become rather flexible as evident from the practices continued, loosely, at the University of Toronto's, Trinity College:

"Remember, remember the third of November? Traditionally Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated on the fifth, but as we all know, Trinity College does not follow a normal set of traditions. Instead, this year’s festivities were held two days early so that they might fall more conveniently on a Thursday, coinciding with a themed debate from the Literary Institute. The Euchre Committee was well prepared with an effigy of Fawkes, complete with explosives, and mulled wine was served to all lookers-on. Pyrotechnics for all to enjoy!"[16]

[edit] Colonial America

This day was celebrated in the colonies and was called "Pope's Day". It was the high point of antipopery in New England. In the 1730's or earlier Boston's artisans commemorated the day with a parade and performances which mocked popery and the Catholic Stuart pretender. It was also the day when the youth and the lower class ruled. They went door to door collecting money from the affluent to finance feasting and drinking.[17]

[edit] Modern United States

The night has been celebrated for the past 11 years in the ocean community of Westerly in the state of Rhode Island, USA. The night is begun with a musical comedy, based on the events of Guy Fawkes' capture written in the style of an english Monty Python comedy sketch. Every year it is slightly rewritten by a dedicated team of locals who also provide the acting and musical arrangements. Finally, the night is rounded out with a Guy Fawkes Bonfire, weather permitting. The event is always held on the beach, and in the fall the New England coastline is a bit windy and cold so the event is always different depending greatly on the weather and the number of people in the audience. [18]

[edit] Southern hemisphere

Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night (and the weekend closest to it) is the main night for both amateur and official fireworks displays in the UK and New Zealand.

In Australia, Guy Fawkes Night is mostly known simply as Bonfire Night and bears little connection to its original purpose.[citation needed] It is also referred to as Cracker Night by some Australians and celebrated in a song of the same name by Australian singer, John Williamson. Celebration of Bonfire Night has died down due to the banning of fireworks in most states and territories to prevent their misuse.

Prior to this ban, Guy Fawkes Night in Australia was widely celebrated with many private, backyard fireworks lightings and larger communal bonfires and fireworks displays in public spaces.

Although one of the reasons for the ban on fireworks was the danger of bushfires during hot Novembers, since the ban, private (and therefore illegal) fireworks have become increasingly popular on New Years Eve, an even more dangerous time for bushfires.

The day was moved[when?] to a more suitable time of year due to the threat of bush fires in the dry Australian summer.

A pyrotechnic fountain.
A pyrotechnic fountain.

In New Zealand, the sale of fireworks has been increasingly regulated. Firecrackers have been banned since 1993, and rockets (or any firework where the firework itself flies) have been banned since 1994.[19] In 2007, the sale period for fireworks was reduced to the four days leading to Guy Fawkes Night, and the legal age to buy fireworks was raised from 14 to 18.[20] Despite those sales restrictions, there is actually no restriction on when one may light fireworks, only a restriction on when they may be sold.[21] Prime Minister Helen Clark is considering banning the sale of personal fireworks in New Zealand,[22] although 2007 was one of the "quietest on record" according to the NZ fire service.[23]

Guy Fawkes day was celebrated to some extent by South Africans of English descent, but the practice began dwindling by the 1960s. Personal fireworks were banned by the Apartheid-era government, which feared that fireworks could be converted into improvised explosive devices during periods of civil unrest. This development may have contributed to the decline of celebrations. However, South Africa's expulsion from the Commonwealth and distancing from Britain in the 1960s is another likely factor.

[edit] Caribbean

In the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, this is a very exciting night in the town of Barrouallie, on the main island of Saint Vincent's leeward side. The town's field comes ablaze as people come to see all of the traditional pyrotechnics.

[edit] Traditional rhymes

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Traditionally the following verse was also sung, but it has fallen out of favour because of its content.

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 hoorah!

A variant on the foregoing:

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot!
A stick or a stake for King James' sake
Will you please to give us a faggot
If you can't give us one, we'll take two;
The better for us and the worse for you!

Another piece of popular doggerel:

Guy, guy, guy
Poke him in the eye,
Put him on the bonfire,
And there let him die[24].

[edit] In popular culture

  • Guy Fawkes Night was spoofed in "Raining Forks", an episode in the fourth series of Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. A similar holiday, "High Forks Night", is described in song as the night a plot to blow up the royal kitchen resulted in forks falling from the sky. The traditional rhyme is also spoofed, with Robin's line "You know the poem: 'Remember, remember, the twenty-seventh of April.'"
  • In the Daria episode "Depth Takes a Holiday", Daria meets the physical incarnation of Guy Fawkes Day.
  • The game Hellgate: London has Guy Fawkes Night content, which will be available to subscribers from 5th of November to the 11th. Included in Guy Fawkes Week are items with flaming abilities, new instances that have a fiery theme, collectible candies such as Bonfire Toffee and Baked Potatoes, and many new recipes are added.[25]
  • Australian singer/songwriter John Williamson sings a song Cracker Night on his album Mallee Boy, about his memories of Guy Fawkes night when he was a child.[26]
  • In The Sandman #75, William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson are shown composing the first five lines of "Remember, remember the Fifth of November." Shakespeare comments that if they teach it to a nearby urchin, he will teach it to his friends, and it will survive a hundred years, though Jonson doubts it.
  • The epigraph of "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot, the tradition is alluded to with the line 'A penny for the Old Guy.'
  • Thomas Hardy opens his 1870s' novel The Return of the Native with the folk of Egdon Heath celebrating the 5th of November.

[edit] See also

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[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ H2G2 Entry on York, England, BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A577055> 
  2. ^ Keating, Sheila (October 20, 2007), Where to get the best treacle toffee, Times Online, <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article2662748.ece> 
  3. ^ Lepard, Dan (November 3, 2007), How to bake 100-year-old parkin, The Guardian, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2203374,00.html> 
  4. ^ McEvedy, Allegra (October 31, 2007), The G2 weekly recipe: toffee apples and pears, The Guardian, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2202178,00.html> 
  5. ^ {[cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/features/2003/11/firework_toffee.shtml|title=Tasty toffee apples|accessdate=2007-11-11|work=BBC - Hereford & Worcester]]}}
  6. ^ Tantalising recipes for your bonfire feast, BBC, 26 March 2004, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/features/bonfire_feast.shtml> 
  7. ^ The top 10 Guy Fawkes links, Telegraph, 3/11/2007, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2007/11/03/dlweb03.xml&page=2> 
  8. ^ Beckett, Fiona (June 3, 2000), Bean feast, The Guardian, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,327387,00.html> 
  9. ^ Lewes Bonfire Night: An Explosive Event, <http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/bonfire-night/features/november-5th-in-lewes> 
  10. ^ Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels
  11. ^ Donaldson, Kenny (November 1, 2007), “Remember Remember the 5th of November” says Donaldson, <http://uuptoday.org/newsroom/2007/11/01/remember-remember-the-5th-of-november-says-donaldson/> 
  12. ^ http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/guy-fawkes-day-november-5-1605/ 
  13. ^ http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/encyclopaedia!openframeset&frame=Right&Src=/edible.nsf/pages/guyfawkes!opendocument/ 
  14. ^ http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2005/env/1104n02.htm 
  15. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2stU2AGrSy4 
  16. ^ http://www.salterrae.ca/archive/2005/6/article14.php 
  17. ^ Nash, pg. 165
  18. ^ http://www.caswellcooke.com/guy_fawkes.htm
  19. ^ New Zealand is ready for a fireworks retail ban, 17 October 2006, <http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0610/S00194.htm> 
  20. ^ Sales rocketing despite tougher rules, Nov 2, 2007, <http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/423466/1425814> 
  21. ^ Not illegal to let off fireworks, TV NZ, Nov 8, 2005, <http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/625359> 
  22. ^ Thompson, Wayne (November 05, 2007), Fireworks sales facing total ban as PM talks tough, The New Zealand Herald, <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10474049> 
  23. ^ Guy Fawkes quietest in decades, One News, Nov 6, 2007, <http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1431296> 
  24. ^ http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/encyclopaedia!openframeset&frame=Right&Src=/edible.nsf/pages/guyfawkes!opendocument/ 
  25. ^ Server Coming Down, New Theme, <http://www.hellgatelondon.com/underground/server-coming-down-new-theme> 
  26. ^ http://www.malleeboy.com/music/cracker_night.html

[edit] References

  • Nash, Gary, The Urban Crucible, The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution, 1986, ISBN 0674930584

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Annotations

  • shocker 05 November 2003
    “…Guy Fawkes’ gunpowder plot would have wrecked buildings in Whitehall up to a third of a mile away as well as destroying the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, scientists have calculated.

    By working out the explosive power of the 2,500kg of gunpowder he secreted under the old Westminster Hall in November 1605, physicists at the Centre for Explosion Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, forecast there would have been “severe structural damage” from the blast.

    The calculation is the first time anyone has worked out what could have happened if Fawkes’ plot to blow up King James I, as he addressed Parliament in the House of Lords on 5 November, had not been discovered the previous night….”
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=460561

  • Just as well it was a damp squib!
    Apparently the gunpowder wouldn’t have caused so much damage because it was well past its sell-be date. Guido was had by Paynes, the supplier.
    I have little concern for James 1 but Westminster Abbey is a beautiful building. (The current Palace of Westminster is 19th century, so the houses of parliament don’t count)
    If it had succeeded, would Britain have become Catholic (the intention) or would there have been a backlash that would have put back ecumenism centuries?

  • According to today’s London Times, there were more than two tons of gunpowder.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-880971,00.html

    With regard to Grahamt’s question above: I would vote for the second outcome, i.e. that you can’t bomb people into submission and that there would have been a very strong, fanatical Protestant pogrom against all Catholics, guilty or innocent (just an opinion, of course).

    (Did anyone see the Michael Wood TV programmes speculation that Shakespeare - who was distantly related to some of the conspirators - was a secret Catholic. And was one of the few playwrights never to have anti-Catholic pieces in his plays?)

  • 5th of … and the warning letter
    and more of the dastardly deed
    “…My Lord out of the love I beare to some of youere friends, have a caer of your preservation. Therefore I would advice yowe as yowe tender youer lyfe to devyse some excuse to shift off youer attendance to this parleament, for God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this tyme and thinke not slightlye of this advertisement but retyre youer selfe into youer contri wher yowe maye expect the event in safti. Yet I saye they shall receyve a terrible blow this parleament and yet they shall not sei who hurts them. This cowncel is not to be condemned because it may do yowe good and can do yowe no harme for when the danger is passed, will give yowe the grace to make good use of it. To whose holy protection I comend youe - to the right honourable the Lord Mow’teagle…..”
    http://www.pillagoda.freewire.co.uk/PLOT.htm

  • Guy Fawkes
    Is the gunpoweder plot the most consistently celebrated event in England? The City of Bristol echoed for hours, non-stop last night (5/11/03), with the constant boom of fireworks all over the city - providing a very similar experience to that of Pepys 343 years ago. While Pepys did celebrate Chirstmas and Easter, they wer much lower key than celebrations of today.

  • Interesting point PHE, but aren’t Christmas and Easter christian continuations of pagan festivals of Yule and Eoster…? As such they are really much older fesivals than the Gunpowder Plot celebrations…(Rowdy here too in Staines!)

  • 1647 Details of Firework Display -London
    5 November 1647-

    Firework display: “before the Lords and Commons of Parliament and the militia of london in commemoration of God’s great mercy in delivering this kingdom from the hellish plots of papists, acted in the damnable Gunpowder Treason”
    Gunner George Brown designed the display with a printed programme which explained what each
    tableau conveyed:-

    “1. Fire-balls burning in the water, and rising out of the water burning, showing the papist’s conjuration and consultation with infernal spirits, for the destruction of England’s king and parliament.

    2.Fire-boxes like meteors, sending forth many dozen rockets out of the water, intimating the popish spirits coming from below to act their treasonous plots against England’s king and parliament.

    3. Fawkes with his dark lantern, and many fire-boxes, lights, and lamps, ushering the pope into England, intimating the plot to destroy England’s true king and parliament.

    4. Pluto with his fiery club. Presenting himself maliciously bent to destroy all that have hindered the pope from destroying England’s king and parliament.

    6. Runners on a line, intimating the papists sending to all parts of the world, for subtle cunning and malicious plotters of mischief against England’s king and parliament.

    7. A fire-wheel, intimating the display of a flag of victory over the enemies that would have destroyed
    England’s King and parliament.

    8. Rockets in the air, showing the thankfulness of all well-willers to true religion, for the deliverance of England’s king and parliament.

    9. Balloons breaking in the air, with many streams of fire, showing God’s large and bounteous goodness towards England’s king and parliament.

    10. Chambers of lights, showing England’s willingness to cherish the light of the glorious gospel therin to be continued.

    11. A great bumber -ball br eaking in pieces, and discharging itself of other its lights, holding forth the cruelty of the papists to England’s king and parliament.

    12. Fire-boxes among the spectators, to warn them to take heed forthe future that they cherish none that are enemies to England’s king and parliament.
    -A Modell of the Fire-Works to be presented in Lincolnes-Inne Fields on the 5th of Novemb. 1647. (London 1647) A good source for contemporary fireworks: Francis Malthus, “A treatise of Artifician Fire-Works, both for Warres and Recreation”(London, 1629) and John White. “A rich Cabinet, with Variety of Inventions…Whereunto is added avariety of Recreative Fire-works, both for Land, Aire, and water.” (London, 1651)

    There were also bonfires and bells.”

    http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5567/celebrations.html?200726

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References in the diary

1660
Nov: 5