Guy Fawkes Night

Guy Fawkes Night
Festivities in Windsor Castle during Guy Fawkes Night. Aquatint with etching, Paul Standby, September 1776
Also called	Bonfire Night
Observed by	United Kingdom and some of its former colonies
Type	Cultural, Remembrance
Significance	The failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605
Observances	Bonfires, fireworks, etc.
Date	5 November

Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, is an annual celebration, primarily in Great Britain, traditionally and usually held on the evening of 5 November. Festivities are centred on the use of fireworks and the lighting of bonfires. It is also celebrated in former British Colonies such as Australia and New Zealand.

Historically, the celebrations mark the anniversary of the failed Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605. The date was originally made a public holiday in England by the anti-Catholic Thanksgiving Act of 1605, which was repealed in 1859.

Origins

Eight of the thirteen plotters (missing are Everard Digby, Robert Keyes, Ambrose Rookwood, John Grant and Francis Tresham)

Guy Fawkes Night originates from the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a failed conspiracy by a group of provincial English Catholics to assassinate the Protestant King James I of England and replace him with a Catholic head of state. The survival of the king was first celebrated on 5 November 1605, after Guy Fawkes, left in charge of the gunpowder placed underneath the House of Lords, was discovered and arrested.

The same month the surviving conspirators were executed, in January 1606 the Observance of 5th November Act 1605, commonly known as the "Thanksgiving Act" was passed, ensuring that for more than 250 years 5 November was kept free as a day of thanksgiving. According to historian and author Antonia Fraser, a study of the sermons preached on the first anniversary of 5 November demonstrates an anti-Catholic concentration "mystical in its fervour". Each anniversary of the plot's failure was for years celebrated by the ringing of church bells, special sermons, and the lighting of bonfires. Further controversies such as the marriage of Charles I to the Catholic Henrietta Maria of France and the 1679 Popish Plot helped fuel the popularity of the events, which at times became a celebration not of the deliverance of a monarch, but of anti-Papist sentiment.

In England the Catholic hierarchy was restored in 1850. Anti-Catholic sentiment remained strong, and effigies were burnt of the new Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Nicholas Wiseman, and the Pope. The publication in 1857 of author David Jardine's A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot only stoked the flames higher, and in 1859 the thanksgiving prayer of 5 November contained in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer was removed, and the 1606 Act repealed.

Historically the date has been celebrated by the burning of effigies of contemporary hate-figures, such as that in 1899 of Paul Kruger, President of the South African Republic, at Ticehurst. Some modern instances of burning effigies exist; in Lewes in 1994 revellers immolated the effigies of politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and John Major, alongside Fawkes.

British customs

Children display their guy on the street to raise funds for fireworks

Across England, Wales, and Scotland, both private and civic events take place in towns and villages. Although 5 November is the traditional night for celebrations, in recent years the trend is for the festivities to be moved to a weekend, often with officially organised bonfires and professionally managed firework displays.

Traditionally, an effigy (or "guy") representing Fawkes is ritually burnt on the bonfire. Although the night is celebrated in Fawkes's home town of York, some there do not burn his effigy, most notably those from his old school. In the weeks before bonfire night, children traditionally displayed the "guy" and requested a "penny for the guy" in order to raise funds with which to buy fireworks. This practice has diminished greatly, perhaps because it has been seen as begging, and also because children are not allowed to buy fireworks. In addition there are concerns that children might misuse the money.

In recent years, the commercialised celebration of Hallowe'en is seen as increasingly replacing Guy Fawkes Night. Commentator David Cannadine has written:

"...[T]hese days, Bonfire Night is not the event it was when I was young. I can vividly remember that for me 5 November meant street-corner guys in rickety prams; roasted potatoes and chestnuts; and my father in our back garden lighting the blue touch paper on rockets, roman candles and catherine wheels, and then retiring. Nowadays, family bonfire gatherings are much less popular, and many once-large civic celebrations have been given up because of increasingly intrusive health and safety regulations. But 5 November has also been overtaken by a popular festival that barely existed when I was growing up, and that is Halloween.... Britain is not the Protestant nation it was when I was young: it is now a multi-faith society. And the Americanised Halloween is sweeping all before it - a vivid reminder of just how powerfully American culture and American consumerism can be transported across the Atlantic."

In Britain, there are several foods that are traditionally consumed on Bonfire Night:

• Bangers and mash (or hot dogs in more recent times)
• Black treacle goods such as bonfire toffee and parkin
• Toffee apples
• Baked potatoes – more commonly referred to as "jacket potatoes" – which are wrapped in aluminium foil and cooked in the bonfire or its embers
• Black peas with vinegar
• Potato pie with pickled red cabbage

In West Yorkshire the practice of collecting wood and other combustible materials to make community bonfires is known as "chumping".

A Guy Fawkes Night firework display

In Sussex, Bonfire night is a major festival that centres on Lewes necessitating the closure of the town centre. Thousands of people travel to Lewes every year to watch the celebrations, and Lewes has many different societies. The night also commemorates the Glorious Revolution and 17 local Protestant martyrs that were burnt at the stake during Marian Persecutions by the Catholic Queen Mary I. 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. The burning of an effigy of Pope Paul V is carried out by the Cliffe and Commercial Square bonfire societies.

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 5 November each year. Each of Ottery's central public houses sponsors a single barrel. In the weeks prior to the day of the event, 5 November, 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.

Bonfire Night is not celebrated in Northern Ireland, where fireworks and bonfires are more commonly associated with The Twelfth, which celebrates the victory of Protestant king William of Orange over Catholic king James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690).

Global customs

In Canada the celebration is largely unheard of in most provinces, although modified versions are commemorated in a few places, having been planted along with other cultural practices by 19th-century British colonists.

The night is also still celebrated in Nanaimo, British Columbia. The custom was brought over by British coal miners that came to Nanaimo in the mid-to-late 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.

Guy Fawkes bonfires are still burnt in many parts of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2005 the celebrations were widespread enough to merit mention by the provincial Minister of Environment and Conservation. Tom Osborne, Minister of Environment and Conservation, 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 ... 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.

Every year, in the quadrangle of Trinity College at the University of Toronto an effigy of Guy Fawkes is hung by a noose. The students of the college will often don their academic gowns as they observe the effigy burn.

In the aftermath of the Boer War Anna Maria Outerbridge – a leader of a "Boer Relief Committee" well known for trying to assist Boer POWs in escaping – was so unpopular with the British that in Bermuda, rather than Guy Fawkes an effigy of her was burned.

In the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the night is celebrated in the town of Barrouallie, on the leeward side of the main island of Saint Vincent. The town's field comes ablaze as people come to see all of the traditional pyrotechnics. In Antigua and Barbuda, Guy Fawkes Night was popular until the 1990s, when a ban on fireworks made it almost non-existent. In the Bahamas, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in the Fox Hill area of New Providence, the main island. Other islands have smaller celebrations for their residents. On the twin island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, the night is still celebrated throughout the country.

In colonial America, the day was called "Pope's Day". It was the high point of "anti-popery" (in the term of the times) in New England. In the 1730s or earlier, Boston's artisans commemorated the day with a parade and performances which mocked Catholicism 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. George Washington forbade the celebration of the day among his troops due to its anti-Catholic and pro-British purpose.

In Australia, Guy Fawkes Night has not been celebrated since the late 1970s, when to prevent misuse and personal injuries the sale and public use of fireworks was banned in most states and territories. Before this ban, Guy Fawkes Night in Australia was celebrated in private, backyard fireworks lightings and occasionally with larger communal bonfires or fireworks displays in public spaces. Some recent immigrants to Australia from Britain preserve the British tradition and arrange private parties with bonfires and sparklers.

A pyrotechnic fountain

Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night (and the weekend closest to it) is the main night for both amateur and official fireworks displays in New Zealand, with most major New Zealand cities and many smaller areas holding their own popular public firework displays on Guy Fawkes night. However, the sale of fireworks has been increasingly reduced in recent years. Firecrackers have been banned since 1991, and rockets (or any firework where the firework itself flies) have been banned since 1994. 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. Despite those sales restrictions, there is actually no restriction on when one may light fireworks, only a restriction on when they may be sold. There are some local bans on setting off fireworks, usually covering only the days around Guy Fawkes Night. Ex Prime Minister Helen Clark considered banning the sale of personal fireworks in New Zealand, although 2007 was one of the "quietest on record" according to the NZ fire service.

Guy Fawkes is celebrated in South Africa. Bonfires with Fawkes' effigies are not uncommon, although they are certainly not essential to the celebrations. Many schools and community centres stage fireworks displays in order to raise money. Until government restrictions on the purchase of fireworks were introduced in the 1990s (primarily motivated by animal welfare concerns), it was common for middle-class neighbourhoods to host quite elaborate informal fireworks displays. These have diminished of late, due to the necessity of obtaining a permit to hold such events. The government has allocated sections of public beaches to be used as sites for the lighting of fireworks. These sites are usually plagued by pollution due to Guy Fawkes celebrations.

Traditional rhymes

Several traditional rhymes have accompanied the festivities. "God Save the King" can be replaced by "God save the Queen" depending on who is on the throne.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent

To blow up the King and Parli'ment.

Three-score barrels of powder below

To prove old England's overthrow;

By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy*)

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holla boys, Holla boys, let the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

And what should we do with him? Burn him!

See also

• Sussex Bonfire Societies
• West Country Carnival

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Anon (1859), The law journal for the year 1832-1949, vol. XXXVII, E. B. Ince
• Fraser, Antonia (2005) [1996], The Gunpowder Plot, London: Phoenix, ISBN 0753814013
• Gardiner, Samuel Rawson (2009), History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Outbreak of the Civil War 1603–1642 (8), BiblioBazaar, LLC, ISBN 1115266500
• Haynes, Alan (2005) [1994], The Gunpowder Plot: Faith in Rebellion, Sparkford, England: Hayes and Sutton, ISBN 0750942150

External links

• Bonfire Night fireworks displays in London at LondonEvents2010.com