Learn about Guy Fawkes Night
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| The smell of burning as you step out into the frosty night.Fireworks screeching and bursting into the black sky.An explosion of colour splattered across the stars.Your face burning from the heat of the fire raging in front of you, your back freezing from the November cold.Gloved hands hold sparklers, and you draw circles and write your name in gold.Guy Fawkes Night, held on 5 November, is an annual celebration that dates back to 1605.It commemorates Guy Fawkes's failure to blow up the House of Lords.Guy Fawkes plotted to take the life of the protestant King James I.As a member of a group of provincial Catholics, they attempted to assassinate the King and replace him with a Catholic head of state.After the King's survival, the general public lit fireworks across London to celebrate, and soon this date became an official observance day to mark the failure of the plot.Nowadays it is still traditional for children to make a "Guy" to be burned on the bonfire.Made out of old clothes sewn together, a life-sized effigy of Guy Fawkes is made, often with a comical face drawn on.In the past children would wheel the Guy from door to door asking for "a penny for the Guy." Though this part of the process is dying, the macabre act of throwing the Guy onto the bonfire still draws the crowds. |
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