Why do we celebrate bonfire night?
We all know the official reason why bonfires are held on 5 November every year. Back in 1605 an anarchist known as Guido Fawkes and several other conspirators made an attempt to blow up the House of Lords and all that were in it, including King James I. This attempt was thwarted and we have celebrated it ever since. Is it really as simple as that though? Numerous attempts have been made throughout our history to kill reigning monarchs so why do we still celebrate this one more than 400 years later?
One reason may well be that King James I ordered it, because he was so relieved that his life had been spared. Perhaps there was more to it than even that though.
There was a lot of religious turmoil at the time, with many Catholics yearning for the days before England became a Protestant country. Fawkes was a converted Catholic and had already fought for Catholic Spain against Protestant Holland. The gunpowder plot, as it became known as, was therefore looked upon as a purely Catholic conspiracy. It's failure was viewed as a triumph of Protestantism over Catholicism.
There was actually a Thanks Giving Act Passed by Parliament which insisted on a special service being held in churches throughout Britain on 5 November every year, to which every person was obliged to attend, stay sober, and conduct themselves in a civilised manner. This act actually stayed on the statute book right up to 1859!
Initially fires were lit in London to celebrate the failure of the gunpowder plot, and this spread throughout the country; after all we Brits love a good party; and often effigies of the Pope were burned. In later years as anti-Catholic sentiment cooled down effigies of Guido Fawkes were incinerated instead.
There is yet another possible reason for the celebration. At the beginning of November, in pagan times, there was a festival called Samhain (pronounced 'Sawn') which celebrated the end of the summer and the growing season, and the beginning of winter. Fires made of bones were burned in honour of the gods. There is only a short jump between the words 'bone fire' and 'bonfire'.
The Christian church was determined to stamp out all these pagan festivals which many people were still celebrating even though they had lost sight of the original meanings. Substituting another reason for the same celebration was one of their common tactics, and many believe that ordering bonfires on 5 November to replace those of Samhain was just one of these strategies.
Bonfire night itself has faded away in importance over the last couple of decades mainly as a result of increases in health and safety concerns, along with heavy liabilities for the organisers if things go wrong and people get hurt.
As for Guy (Guido) Fawkes; he was sentenced to be hung drawn and quartered. This was a barbaric punishment in which the miscreant was hung until he was not quite dead; his abdomen was cut open, and his entrails taken out and burned in front of his eyes; and then he was chopped into four pieces. Fawkes managed to cheat the hangman though, by falling off the scaffold and breaking his neck! A far better fate than the one he had been promised. Perhaps his God looked after him in the end.