remember remember the fifth of november…

The English aren’t so much into Halloween. Sure, the odd little fairy will dance through the street and if you’re not careful hoodlums from across the river will throw a brick through your window. But it’s really not so much about All Hallows Eve as Bonfire Night. The pyrotechnics (think 4th of July in the Fall) start well before the fifth of November and last until they don’t. Students get drunk and children come out to beg. ‘A penny for The Guy’. Some still make an effort to drag effigies through the streets. Others just sit in hooded splendor at Tesco and Sainsburys waiting to throw your penny back in your face. Of course they meant a fiver.

For those not up on 17th century English history, Bonfire Night celebrates the Gunpowder Plot – a failed attempt by Guy Fawkes et al to blow up the King and Parliament. Long story short, someone ratted him out, the plot was foiled, and The Guy was tortured for a few days before being hung, drawn and quartered.

The tradition began a year later, in 1606, when the King and Parliament commissioned sermons to remind “the simple and ignorant heerein” of Fawkes’ demise and to serve as a warning to each new generation that treason will never be forgotten.

Four hundred years on, the day is still celebrated with fireworks and bonfires. With the burning of child-made effigies of Fawkes. And with the rhyme: