Guy Fawkes Night
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Guy Fawkes Night, sometimes 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 erstwhile British colonies New Zealand, South Africa, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (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(to 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 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.
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[edit] Traditional rhymes
The night is closely associated with the popular rhyme, which is known to have many iterations, all containing the same basic message.
One version is as follows:
- Remember, remember the fifth of November,
- The Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
- I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason
- should ever be forgot.
The second and third verses, which are not usually used, continue the rhyme:
- Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent
- to blow up the King and Parliament.
- Three score barrels of powder below,
- to prove old England's overthrow:
- By God's mercy he was catch'd
- With a dark lantern and burning match.
- Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
- Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
- Hip hip hoorah!
The remaining 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 huzzah!
- Hip hip huzzah!
[edit] Modern significance
Despite the nature of the events commemorated, little political or sectarian significance is attached to Bonfire Night in modern times. This can be seen in the neglect or shunning of the anti-Catholic verses in the above poem, which attests to the changes in Catholic and Protestant relations in the past 400 years. Thus, Bonfire Night is now just as celebrated within the United Kingdom's Catholic communities as well as Protestant ones. 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.
[edit] 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 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.
[edit] Safety concerns
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.
[edit] Official controls
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 and the NT however allows their sale), with only licensed professionals being permitted to mount displays.
In New Zealand, the retail sale of personal use fireworks has been limited to 10 days before Guy Fawkes Night for many years, while the sale of firecrackers was banned in 1993, and sky-rockets were banned in 1994. Sale to children under 14 is prohibited. There are also calls for retailers to limit the quantity of fireworks that can be sold to any one person, particularly sparklers, due to the increase of the misuse of these in a dangerous manner. Due to the number of incidents and problems related to fireworks, the government is considering a complete ban on fireworks (5th November, 2006).
[edit] References in popular culture
- In the Back to the Future Trilogy film series, the idea for the flux capacitor, which makes time travel possible, is created on Guy Fawkes Day, 1955.
- 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 the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, which features the character V, who styles himself as a latter-day Guy Fawkes. 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.
- In the novel Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, the story takes place in the span of one year, starting and ending on Guy Fawkes Night.
- 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.
- In the episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala D'OH cious" of The Simpsons, Bart says, "With you, every day is Guy Fawkes Day!"
- 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 1904879934.
- In The Wake, the tenth volume of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel series The Sandman, William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson are portrayed as having created the Guy Fawkes Day rhyme as a joke (page 15 or 161).
- In the story Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie, a suspicious suicide is discovered the morning after Guy Fawkes Night.
- In the story Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
- 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.
- In the song "Honeydrip" by Ian McCulloch on the album Mysterio
[edit] See also
