Bonfirenight

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 17300

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Rena" <fmu30c at y...> wrote:

> I was wondering if there was a different bonfirenight in England. I
> faintly remember reading something in a book by Enid Blyton, about
> Guy Fawkes (sp?) and Nov. 5th. Would that be it?

Yes, by Bonfire Night, she means Guy Fawkes Day, November 5.

Guy (actually Guido) Fawkes was a Catholic who wanted to blow up 
the House of Commons because they were Protestants who had outlawed 
Catholicism so he filled the basement of the House of Commons 
with gunpowder, therefore it was called the Gunpowder Plot. However, 
he was arrested before he lit the fuse.  No one thinks it is a 
co-incidence that Dumbledore's Phoenix, a bird who regularly burns up, 
is named Fawkes.

Bonfire Night in UK is like I've heard Mischief Night in Detroit 
described, lots of arson as well as fireworks and bonfires, but the 
original purpose of the bonfires was to burn Guy Fawkes in effigy. 

('Effigy' means a model of the person, such as the stone figures 
lying on top of some medieval tombs, but these effigies are made of 
straw and cloth, which is more flammable than stone, and dressed in 
old clothes from garbage cans.)

This particular effigy is called 'the guy'. For days before the 5th, 
boys carry the guy with them and go around begging for money (which 
they supposedly will use to buy fireworks Bonfire Night) by saying 
'Penny for the guy?'. It is remarkable how many old English 
traditions involve going around from house to house begging for money 
or a drink of alcohol. In USA, we just have Halloween begging for 
candy (trick-or-treating).

I have never been in UK and don't know if they still sing their 
traditional begging song:

Please to remember
the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
I see no reason
why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.