Guy Fawkes’ Night
Guy Fawkes’ Night, also known as Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night, is a peculiarly British festival which takes places on November 5th every year. It denotes the anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ failure to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605.Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
In 1605, Guy Fawkes and twelve mates decided that they had had enough of the persecution of Catholics and decided to invent terrorism. They collected thirty-six barrels of gunpowder and placed them strategically beneath the House of Lords in the hope of killing King James I and most of the Protestant aristocracy.
However, he was caught. King James took it upon himself to invent anti-terrorism laws and had Guy tortured and killed.
This religiously-motivated attack carried out by a man with a beard set a trend that was to last centuries, and terrorism is still popular today.
Tradition
Guy Fawkes’ Night sees the assembling of bonfires nationwide, typically topped with an effigy of Fawkes which will be consumed by the flames when the fire is lit.
Bonfires are often accompanied by fireworks, which are explosive devices that, on detonation, spray searingly hot sparks and joy about the place in a colourful fashion. The risk of third-degree burns is thought to be outweighed by the risk of enjoying oneself watching the pretty pyrotechnics, which can be significantly greater if the event is carefully planned.
Other traditional accompaniments include hot soup, mulled wine, marshmallows, jacket potatoes and sparklers.
There is no apparent logical connection between the failure of a mass assasination attempt and the necessity to explode colourful pyrotechnics on an annual basis thereafter. However, a number of possible reasons have been proposed:
- It is to demonstrate posthumously to Fawkes how exactly he should have gone about detonating explosives. The key, we are telling him with smug hindsight, is to disguise the whole affair as a celebration of a failed plot and make the explosives colourful so people actually want to watch them.
- It’s just a good excuse to burn some stuff. Having ditched Paganism as the dominant religion, there weren’t enough such excuses, so this is just another.
Outside opinions
Foreigners are utterly and totally confused by Bonfire Night. Those of them who have worked out on a factual basis that it is the commemoration of Guy Fawkes’ failed plot still have a great deal of difficulty empathising with how this follows to give the quaint pastimes associated with it. Common responses are:
- ”Why are you burning all this stuff? It’s not New Year, Independence Day, Bastille Day or anything!”
- ”You British celebrate failure?”
- ”What?!”