Guy Fawkes’ Night (Bonfire)

Last night here at Opal Gardens we celebrated Guy Fawke’s night. That’s an annual celebration for the English people.

Below you’ll find some interesting info about that celebration courtesy of Wikipedia.

Enjoy the pictures took last night as well.

Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night and 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 New Zealand, South Africa, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada), parts of the British Caribbean, 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 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 "guys" to beg for money with the chant "Penny for the guy".

The evening of November 5th is known as Guy Fawkes Night, but the day itself is not known as Guy Fawkes Day.

Traditional rhymes

The night is closely associated with the popular rhyme:

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, continues:

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!

The following verses, though originally part of the rhyme, are usually left out of modern day recitations for the inflammatory anti-Catholic remarks:

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!

The first line rhyme was also often stated as ‘Please to remember the fifth of November’.

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.

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 (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 & 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), 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.