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Guy Fawkes Night

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A Guy Fawkes Night firework display

Guy Fawkes Night, more commonly known as Bonfire Night or Fireworks 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 former British colonies New Zealand, South Africa, the island of Newfoundland (Canada), parts of the British Caribbean including the Bahamas, and to some extent by their nationals abroad. Bonfire Night was common in Australia until the 1980s, but it was held on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June.

It celebrates for some the failure of the Gunpowder Plot (for others, the attempt), in which a group of Catholic conspirators, led by one Robert Catesby, and including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Westminster on the evening of 5 November 1605, when the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) was within its walls. The conspirators were executed.

The celebrations, which in the United Kingdom take place in towns and villages across the country, involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires, on which "guys", or dummies, representing Guy Fawkes, the most infamous of the conspirators, are traditionally burnt. Before the fifth, children traditionally used the "guys" to beg for money with the chant "Penny for the guy", although this is now rarely seen.

Traditional rhymes

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, 'twas his intent
To blow up the King and 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!

(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!

Modern significance

Despite the anti-Catholic verses in the above poem, which attests to the changes in Catholic and Protestant relations in the past 400 years, Bonfire Night is now just as celebrated within the United Kingdom's Catholic communities as well as Protestant ones[citation needed]. The once common practice of burning effigies of the Pope as well as of Guy Fawkes 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. In the Black Country, it is a traditional night for eating groaty pudding. In Lewes, East Sussex it is a major festival that is also tied up with the 17 Protestant martyrs that were burnt at the stake during the Catholic reign of Mary Tudor. There are torchlight processions in costumes necessitating the closure of the town centre. The usual bonfires are topped off by burning effigies of Guy Fawkes and, often controversially, other unpopular figures. Additionally a burning barrel of tar is thrown in the river. The local Police repeatedly call for restraint and warn of overcrowding.

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

In Australia, Guy Fawkes Night was widely celebrated until the 1980s, but has now completely died out due to state governments banning the commercial sale of fireworks in the 1980s 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). 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 St. Vincent's leeward side. The town's field comes ablaze as people come to see all of the traditional pyrotechnics.

Safety concerns

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As the twentieth century wore on, increased disposable income led to more and bigger fireworks being used in domestic settings, and by children, and greater concerns about safety came to the fore in general. Medical professionals attribute fireworks incidents to causing the loss of eyesight, or fingers, and numerous cases of burns and related injuries. Fire and Police officials identify the Guy Fawkes period as a very busy time, with numerous callouts to fires caused by fireworks and complaints about the misuse of fireworks endangering the public, or damaging property, often with improvised explosive devices using large quantities of fireworks. Others also point out that animals are distressed by the sounds, and bright flashes, of Guy Fawkes Night and call for animals to be kept inside, in quiet places. Zoo staff often express particular concerns for their animals' safety.

Campaigners have used these concerns to press for restrictions on fireworks sales in the countries that celebrate Guy Fawkes Night. These have ranged from voluntary codes of practice to calls for an outright ban on personal use, with professional public displays being called for instead.

Official controls

In the United Kingdom, there have been a number of reactions from the establishment:

  • Banning of "Jumping Jacks".
  • Banning of sale of fireworks to minors.
  • Encouragement of "safe" organized displays.
  • Banning of "bangers".
  • Introduction of the "Fireworks code".
  • Clearer labeling 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.

In Australia, the sale of personal use fireworks has been banned in all states (the ACT, NT and Tasmania allows their sale), with only authorised persons being permitted to mount displays. It should also be noted also that in Tasmania, a permit is required for the use of certain categories of fireworks by the public.

In New Zealand, the retail sale of personal use fireworks is now permitted to those 18 and older, and may now only be sold on the 3 days leading to Guy Fawkes Night. Firecrackers and rockets have been banned for some time. Although people set off fireworks for many weeks after Guy Fawkes night, it is actually illegal to light fireworks except on 5th November.

  • 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".
  • The rhyme and the Gunpowder Plot are alluded to in the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, which features the character V, who styles himself as a latter-day Guy Fawkes, and wears a mask of him in tribute. The film adaptation used the first line of the rhyme "Remember, remember, the fifth of November" as the tagline. The rhyme is also recited in the beginning of the film. The tagline was originally used as way of getting people to remember when the movie came out in theaters; however, it was delayed and no longer came out on Nov. 5 in wide release.
  • An episode of the television show Daria depicts the spirit of Guy Fawkes Night looking and speaking exactly like Sid Vicious.
  • In the novel The Machine Gunners, the characters camouflage a salvaged machine gun in a Guy Fawkes effigy.
  • There is an extended description of Bonfire Night in Lewes in "On a Monkey's Birthday: Belloc and Sussex" (2006) by Tim Rich, a chapter in the book "Common Ground: Around Britain in Thirty Writers" (Cyan Books) ISBN 1-904879-93-4.
  • In the novel Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones. In the novel, Guy Fawkes succeeded in blowing up Parliament and the world (there exists more than one in the story) altered. The world's history, and thus its present, is changed when a magician changes things so that Guy Fawkes failed in this world, just like in every other one.
  • In the 1945 film Hangover Square Bone (Laird Cregar) disposes of Netta's (Linda Darnell) body by disguising it as a 'Guy' and placing it on a bonfire. The film includes a short lesson on Guy Fawkes Day as Bone is stopped in the street by two boys carrying a Guy. They recite the rhyme and give a brief history of Bonfire Night to earn their penny from Bone.
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