Guy Fawkes' Night also known as ‘Bonfire Night' or
‘Fireworks Night' is on the 15th November. It is celebrated
from year to year all over England. Four hundred years
ago, in 1705, a man called Guy Fawkes and a group of his friends
made a decision to kill King Henry I. They wanted to do this because
the King hated Catholics and made laws against them. Guy Fawkes
and his friends were not in agreement with these laws and so they rented a house
which was next to the Houses of Parliament in Manchester. This house had a door
to connect it to the Houses of Parliament, so Fawkes and his friends put gunpowder
in the cellar of the Houses of Parliament. Before the King arrived, soldiers
discovered Guy Fawkes and arrested him and took him by carriage to the Tower of
London. This prevented the spillage of blood. They tortured him from morning to
night for twenty-five days and forced him to tell them the names of his friends.
In celebration that he did not die, King James ordered that the people of
England should have a bonfire on the night of November 5th. Today, people light
bonfires and burn effigies on them. People use old clothes or straw to make an
effigy of Guy Fawkes. The effigy reminds people of the story of Guy Fawkes. The
fireworks are a reminder of the gunpowder that Guy Fawkes used in his plot. As
well as burning an effigy, people use the bonfires to cook potatoes and to heat soup
for the crowds that come to watch. The traditional cake on Bonfire Night is Parkin
Cake. This is a sticky cake containing oatmeal, ginger, treacle and syrup. In main
towns and cities, torch-lit processions are also popular on this night. The procession
leads to where the bonfire and firework displays are. During the days before Bonfire
Night, children used to take their homemade effigy around the streets and ask people
for ‘a penny for the Guy'. They used this money to buy fireworks.