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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 and Labrador (Canada), and formerly in Australia, and to some extent by their nationals abroad. 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.
The celebrations, which in the United Kingdom take place in towns and villages across the country, involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires, traditionally 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".
Traditional rhymes
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.
The full rhyme, rarely used, continued:
- 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 out of 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!
The rhyme was often started 'Please to remember the fifth of November'.
Modern significance
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).
Nonetheless bonfire night provides schools a starting point for historical education.
Other traditions
In the United Kingdom, there are several other regional 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 or its embers.
Guy Fawkes Night (and the weekend closest to it) is the main night for both amateur and official fireworks displays in the UK. Since about 2000, fireworks have been used widely in the weeks around Bonfire night, though they have always been available for the couple of months surrounding the fifth. Other festivals in the surrounding weeks, such as Diwali, impact on this.
In Australia, Guy Fawkes Night (commonly called "cracker night" as a reference to the use of fireworks) was widely celebrated until the 1980s, but has now almost completely died out. This is partly because state governments banned the commercial sale of fireworks in the 1970s & 1980's to prevent their misuse (many people used them to blow up letterboxes and other objects causing injury to others, also causing bushfires in the very dry Australian environment), and partly because of growing official disapproval of the anti-Catholic connotations of the night.
In the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, this is a very exciting night in the town of Barrouallie, on the main island of St. Vincent's leeward side. The town's field comes ablaze as people come to see all of the traditional pyrotechnics.
Although associated with the Gunpowder Plot, the festival may go back to pagan times. In his book, "The Marian Conspiracy", author Graham Phillips writes:
"According to a theory proposed by my friend the author Andrew Collins, such a god may have been called Ak. As the Lord of Misrule, his name had become rendered as Jack in such mischievous mythical spirites as Jack Frost, Jack-in-the-Box and Spring-heeled Jack. He may have been the equivalent of the Nordic god Loki. Loki was the trickster of the gods, and an effigy of him was burnt each year at the start of winter to stave off his unruly influence during the cold days ahead. The Celtic Ak may have given rise to the similar custom of 'smoking the fool'. In the Middle Ages an effigy of a fool, or jester, was burnt on a bonfire at the beginning of November in many parts of Britain. In fact, it is still, in the guise of Guy Fawkes...it was fool-burning that evolved into 'Guy'-burning."
Safety concerns
As the twentieth century wore on, increased disposable income lead to more and bigger fireworks being used in domestic settings, and by children, and greater concerns about safety came to the fore in general. These trends lead to a number of reactions from the establishment.
- Banning of "Jumping Jacks".
- Banning of sale of fireworks to minors.
- Encouragement of "safe" organised displays.
- Banning of "bangers".
- Introduction of the "Fireworks code".
- Clearer labelling of fireworks.
- A BSI standard for fireworks.
In addition the industry responded by ceasing to sell loose fireworks, discouraging "pocket money" purchases, improving the quality of the fuses (thus reducing the temptation to return to lit fireworks) and the portfires supplied with the boxes, and providing rocket tubes that give a more predictable flight than the traditional milk bottle.
References in popular culture
T. S. Eliot references the Guy Fawkes night effigy in the opening lines of The Hollow Men: "Mistah Kurtz–he dead, A penny for the Old Guy".
It is also the subject of the song "Remember" by John Lennon, on the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
The rhyme and the Gunpowder Plot are alluded to in V for Vendetta, a comic by Alan Moore. Consequently, the first line of the rhyme "Remember, remember, the fifth of November" is the tagline for the popular film, V for Vendetta based on the comic.
An episode of the television show Daria depicts the spirit of Guy Fawkes Night looking and speaking exactly like Sid Vicious.
It is likely that Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix in the Harry Potter series, is named in reference to Guy Fawkes Night.
See also
British culture | Secular holidays | Seasonal traditions
Noson Guto Ffowc | Guy Fawkes Night | ליל גאי פוקס | Dzień Guya Fawkesa | Guy Fawkes Night
"Guy Fawkes Night"