5th November

Remember, Remember!

The 5th November,

The gunpowder treason and plot;

I know of no reason,

Why the gunpowder treason,

Should ever be forgot!

It's Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night where we celebrate the night in 1605 where a group of Catholic plotters were arrested for placing explosives beneath the House of Lords to blow up King James I in order to replace him with a Catholic head of state. After the plot was foiled, people in the town lit bonfires to celebrate the king having survived the Gunpowder plot! And months after this, it became an annual public day to thank for the failed plot, which then transpired over centuries to the bonfire night we know today. The plotters were eventually executed on the grounds of treason!

This tradition was then transformed into a more modern day tradition and nowadays people set off fireworks to celebrate Bonfire Night and at the end light huge bonfires to replicate the plot of Guy Fawkes. People also create a Guy Fawkes figure that they burn on the bonfire made out of old clothes and straw. The fireworks represent the gunpowder that would've been used to blow up King James and have become a community event as many host firework displays like the one I went to on Saturday.

It is a brilliant historical event but also one that has been passed down generations and still celebrated 400 years on. Do you celebrate bonfire night? What do you do? Let me know.

Have a great day everyone!

xxx