When and why is Guy Fawkes night?

Answer 1

Guy Fawkes night is the fifth of November. It is celebrated every year in England, where it is often called Bonfire night. Bonfires are lit in many people's gardens and fireworks are let off. There also many public or communal displays, some organised by a few streets getting together, with a bonfire about the size of a small house, and others put on by the town or city; these last usually don't have bonfires but have large firework displays. The reason for this is to celebrate the foiling, in 1605, of the famous "Gunpowder Plot". This was an attempt to destroy, by means of many large barrels of gunpowder, the houses of parliament in London. The bang was timed for the State Opening of Parliament, with the intention of murdering the Monarch, the nobility and all the members of the House of Commons. The plotters intended the explosion to be followed by a prompt coup d'etat which would replace the Protestant monarchy and parliament that the the majority of English people wanted by an imposed Roman Catholic regime. The chief plotter, captured with just hours to spare, was Guy Fawkes, and to this day almost every bonfire burns an effigy of him. These effigies are always home made, most often by children, and called guys.