Have you ever thought how strange it is that 21st century Britain still embraces the Guy Fawkes night tradition with such bloodthirsty enthusiasm?Why do we do this? Surely we don’t still loathe and despise the so-called traitor who tried to blow up the government leaders of his era. Many of us secretly admire him, in fact. Yet we still light bofires every year to celebrate the safety of King James I – or at least that was the rationale behind the very first Bonfire Night on November 5, 1605.
Some say our deep-rooted subversive streak makes us proud of the mavericks who dared to challenge the leaders of their day. Others say we're just a bunch of pyromaniacs who like fireworks. But whichever is true, here are some things you may not have known about the festival.
The gunpowder plot was actually masterminded by Robert Catesby, but poor old co-conspirator Guy Fawkes just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was caught in charge of 36 barrels of gunpowder inside the Houses of Parliament. "What, these? Nothing to do with me, guv." So but for a quirk of fate, we would today be celebrating Catesby Night and burning "Roberts".
The tradition of making stuffed “guys” and burning them on bonfires leads some people to assume that Guy Fawkes was burnt at the stake. But as every schoolchild knows, he was hanged, drawn and quartered. Except he wasn't. Wily old Guy leapt from the scaffold and died before any drawing and quartering could take place.
Although uniquely British in its history, Guy Fawkes Night is also enthusiastically celebrated in New Zealand. Though Prime Minister Helen Clark is this year threatening to ban all those nasty dangerous fireworks.
Guy Fawkes night is so bang up to date that it even has its own website: http://www.bonefire.org/. Besides informing us about this annual event, the site also has a merchandising section where visitors can buy Guy Wear (for guys, naturally) and would-be female plotters can kit themselves out with Fawkesy Lady T-shirts.
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