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Guy Fawkes Night (more commonly known as Bonfire Night and sometimes Fireworks Night) is an annual celebration on the evening of the 5th of November. It celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605 in which a number of Roman Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London.

It is primarily marked in the United Kingdom, but also in former British colonies including New Zealand, parts of Canada, and parts of the British Caribbean.^{[citation needed]} Bonfire Night was also common in Australia until the 1980s^{[citation needed]}, but it was held on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June.

Festivities are centred around the use of fireworks and the lighting of bonfires.

Contents 1 Local customs 1.1 United Kingdom 1.2 Southern hemisphere 1.3 Caribbean 2 Traditional rhymes 3 In popular culture 4 See also 5 References

In the United Kingdom, celebrations take place in towns and villages across the country in the form of both private and civic events. They involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires on which "guys" are burnt. These "guys" are traditionally effigies of Guy Fawkes, the most famous of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. Although the night is celebrated in York (Fawkes hometown) some there do not burn his effigy, most notably those from his old school.^[1] Before the fifth, children traditionally use the "guys" to request a "penny for the guy" in order to raise funds with which to buy fireworks.

In the United Kingdom, there are several foods that are traditionally consumed on Guy Fawkes Night:

• black treacle goods such as bonfire toffee^[2] and parkin,^[3]
• toffee apples^[4][5]
• baked potatoes, which are wrapped in foil and cooked in the bonfire or its embers^[6][7]
• black peas with vinegar^[8]

In the Black Country, it is a traditional night for eating groaty pudding.^{[citation needed]}

In Sussex it is a major festival that centres on Lewes necessitating the closure of the town centre. The night also commemorates the Glorious Revolution and 17 local Protestant martyrs that were burnt at the stake during Marian Persecutions of the Catholic Queen Mary I^[9]. The night begins with torchlight processions in costume by a number of local bonfire societies and culminates in six separate bonfires where effigies of Guy Fawkes, Pope Paul V and topical personalities are destroyed by firework and flame.

In Scotton, the locals do not burn a effigies of Guy Fawkes due to the village's connection to him. Up until recently, the Catholic school Stonyhurst College, would avoid any celebration, because of their connection to the other plotters (three of them went to the school).

In Ottery St Mary, in Devon, burning barrels of tar are carried through the streets:

"Ottery St. Mary is internationally renowned for its tar barrels, an old custom said to have originated in the 17th century, and which is held on November 5th each year. Each of Ottery's central public houses sponsors a single barrel. In the weeks prior to the day of the event, November 5th, the barrels are soaked with tar. The barrels are lit outside each of the pubs in turn and once the flames begin to pour out, they are hoisted up onto local people's backs and shoulders. The streets and alleys around the pubs are packed with people, all eager to feel the lick of the barrels flame. Seventeen Barrels all in all are lit over the course of the evening. In the afternoon and early evening there are women's and boy's barrels, but as the evening progresses the barrels get larger and by midnight they weigh at least 30 kilos. A great sense of camaraderie exists between the 'Barrel Rollers', despite the fact that they tussle constantly for supremacy of the barrel. In most cases, generations of the same family carry the barrels and take great pride in doing so. ... Opinion differs as to the origin of this festival of fire, but the most widely accepted version is that it began as a pagan ritual that cleanses the streets of evil spirits.^[10]

Guy Fawkes Night is less commonly celebrated in Northern Ireland, where autumn fireworks and bonfires are more commonly associated with Hallowe'en^[11].

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

In Australia, Guy Fawkes Night is mostly known simply as Bonfire Night and bears little connection to its original purpose.^{[citation needed]} Celebration of Bonfire Night has died down due to the banning of fireworks in most states and territories to prevent their misuse.

The day was moved^{[when? — see talk page]} to a more suitable time of year due to the threat of bush fires in the dry Australian summer.

In New Zealand, the sale of fireworks has been increasingly regulated. Firecrackers have been banned since 1993, and rockets (or any firework where the firework itself flies) have been banned since 1994.^[12] In 2007, the sale period for fireworks was reduced to the four days leading to Guy Fawkes Night, and the legal age to buy fireworks was raised from 14 to 18.^[13] Despite those sales restrictions, there is actually no restriction on when one may light fireworks, only a restriction on when they may be sold.^[14] Prime Minister Helen Clark is considering banning the sale of personal fireworks in New Zealand,^[15] although 2007 was one of the "quietest on record" according to the NZ fire service.^[16]

Guy Fawkes day was celebrated to some extent by South Africans of English descent, but the practice began dwindling by the 1960s. Personal fireworks were banned by the Apartheid-era government, which feared that fireworks could be converted into improvised explosive devices during periods of civil unrest. This development may have contributed to the decline of celebrations. However, South Africa's acquisition of independence from the Britain in the 1960s is another likely factor.

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.

Guy Fawkes Night is the pivotal date in the graphic novel V for Vendetta and its film adaptation.

John Lennon mentions the fifth of November as something to remember in his song "Remember", in his Plastic Ono Band album.

Fawkes's story was the inspiration for Ron Paul's record-breaking moneybomb fundraising day, set on Guy Fawkes Day. Paul's campaign cited its goal of reducing government agencies as a peaceful alternative metaphor for the day. Paul raised $4.2 million, the biggest one-day Internet fundraiser in political history.

Guy Fawkes Night was spoofed in "Raining Forks", an episode in the fourth series of Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. A similar holiday, "High Forks Night", is described in song as the night a plot to blow up the royal kitchen resulted in forks falling from the sky. The traditional rhyme is also spoofed, with Robin's line "You know the poem: 'Remember, remember, the twenty-seventh of April.'"

In The Sandman #75, William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson are shown composing the first five lines of "Remember, remember the Fifth of November." Shakespeare comments that if they teach it to a nearby urchin, he will teach it to his friends, and it will survive a hundred years, though Jonson doubts it.

The game Hellgate: London has Guy Fawkes Night content, which will be available to subscribers from 5th of November to the 11th. Included in Guy Fawkes Week are items with flaming abilities, new instances that have a fiery theme, collectible candies such as Bonfire Toffee and Baked Potatoes, and many new recipes are added.^[17]

• Sussex Bonfire Societies
• Guy Fawkes Carnival
• Guy Fawkes Day America

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