Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot - Information, Featured Articles

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

'Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot...' or so the rhyme goes. Every year on the fifth of November the residents of this green and pleasant land celebrate the execution of Guy Fawkes.

He was just one of several conspirators that were implicated in a plot to blow up Parliament and King James I in 1605, in protest against the anti-Catholic laws of the day. He was caught red handed, down in the vaults beneath the Houses of Parliament, with his barrels of gunpowder. The vaults are still searched each year before the State Opening of Parliament ceremony.

Although on November 5th every year, his effigy is put on top of bonfires around the country and burnt, he and his pals were hanged for treason. The actual spot where they were executed is now a car park for Members of Parliament.

Guy Fawkes night can be a lot of fun. There are plenty of firework parties and displays, but unfortunately also scared cats and dogs, and even burnt children. It is best to go to one of the organised displays that take place in some London parks, where safety is taken very seriously, and the fireworks are really spectacular.

Also, in the month preceding the 5th November you find lots of horrible street urchins demanding money from you with menaces outside every newsagent shop. Time was when they politely asked for a penny for the Guy, (a crude human effigy in an old pram). Now they demand loads of dosh. How times have changed. Come back Guy Fawkes, all is forgiven!

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