5th November Guy Fawkes Night (Bonfire Night)

Guy Fawkes Night is an annual commemoration in Great Britain that is held on November 5th every year. It all began in 1604 when Guy Fawkes, a member of a group of provincial English Catholics, was caught guarding explosives that had been placed beneath the House of Lords. This event is called the Gunpowder Plot, which intended to assassinate the Protestant King James I of England and VI of Scotland and replace him with a Catholic leader. Since then, the day celebrates the king's survival with people lighting bonfires. This day is a thanksgiving for the plot's failure.

When I was a child, here in Australia we also had Bonfire Night, but not on the 5th November. Our parents supervised us around a bonfire while letting of fireworks, but now we are unable to buy fireworks over the shop counter and we need to go to community firework nights. It is much safer. So although Guy Fawkes is not something we celebrate in Australia, we certainly have our share of celebrations that feature bonfires and fireworks and they are always popular.

As a child I learned this verse and I have no idea why. My parents weren't English. Perhaps it was like nursery rhymes and it was part of childhood's oral tradition.

Remember, remember!

The fifth of November,

The Gunpowder treason and plot;

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot! 

While reading The Owl Who is Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson to Year 1, I now need to explain so much more to the students in the first chapter where a small boy is building a bonfire in readiness for fireworks and then describe the named kinds of fireworks as students no longer have this knowledge as part of their schema. An old picture book, Barnaby and the Rocket by Lydia Pender and Judy Cowell helps. It shows what it was like in the past for Australian children.