When is Bonfire Night 2017? When do we celebrate Guy Fawkes’ foiled Gunpowder Plot?
EVERY year thousands of Britons celebrate Guy Fawkes’ foiled Gunpowder Plot of 1605. But when is Bonfire Night this year?
Parade celebrates Bonfire Night in England
When is Bonfire Night 2017?
Bonfire Night is observed every year on November 5, and will kick off this Sunday evening with celebrations across the country.
The annual holiday marks the anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ foiled attempt to blow up Parliament and King James I in 1605.
The date is most commonly remembered thanks to the famous rhyme: “Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot.
“I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
Why does England celebrate Bonfire Night?
In 1606 Parliament made November 5 a national day of thanksgiving, which over time evolved into today’s Bonfire Night.
Bonfire Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Night, remembers a foiled Catholic plot to assassinate the newly crowned Protestant King James I.
A group of Catholic radicals led by Robert Catesby, gathered in 1604 to carry out a daring attack on the home of English democracy – the Houses of Parliament.
The conspirators plotted to blow up the State Opening of Parliament, which was delayed from February till November due to concerns about the plague.
That same year, the conspirators rented out a property across from Parliament, through which they would gain access to Westminster’s cellars by digging out a tunnel.
The exact historical accounts of the conspirators tunnelling into Westminster are questionable, but by the end of July 1605, a total of 36 barrels of gunpowder were smuggled into Westminster’s cellars.
Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot
By October, the plot was ready out and it was up to Fawkes to light the fuse. However a warning letter penned to William Parker, the fourth Baron Monteagle, alarmed Westminster’s guards about suspicious activity in the cellars.
On November 5, Guy Fawkes was caught red handed and his plan to escape across the Thames and leave England was foiled.
Fawkes was then taken away to the Tower of London where he was subjected to two days of excruciating torture before he admitted to treason.
READ MORE: WHO WAS GUY FAWKES?
King James I personally recommended in a letter that Fawkes is tortured until he confesses his sins.
He wrote: The gentler tortures are to be first used unto him, and so by degrees proceeding to the worst, and so God speed your good work.”
When questioned about his intentions, Fawkes boldly said his plan was "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains”.
On January 31, 1606, Fawkes and seven of his fellow plotters were sentenced to death by hanging and quartering.
In a last-ditch effort to spare himself the pain of having his guts spilled out in front of his eyes, Fawkes cast himself from the gallows set up Old Palace Yard at Westminster, and broke his neck.
Fawkes may have managed to avoid death at the hand of his captors, but his body was still quartered and sent sent to "the four corners of the kingdom" as a dire warning to anyone conspiring against the Crown.
How do people celebrate Bonfire night across the country?
The most popular celebration involves intense displays of fireworks in the dark hours of the evening.
Traditionally, large bonfires are also lit up and effigies of Fawkes, known as guys, are cast upon the blazing fires.
Meanwhile children will often stroll down the streets and ask locals for “a penny for a guy”.
Additionally, every year at the state opening of Parliament in the summer, the Yeomen of the Guard begin by searching the cellars of Westminster for any conspirators.