400 Years of Guy Fawkes Night Celebrations

How the British have Marked Bonfire Night with Fireworks & Disorder

Oct 9, 2009

The Gunpowder Plot was foiled on November 5th 1605. It's been an excuse for riots, drunkenness, revenge and protest and anti-catholic bigotry ever since. And sparklers.

The violent nature of the event being celebrated seems to have seeped into the celebrations themselves. Even when ostensibly peaceful, there is always an undercurrent of tension - the odd banger pushed through a letterbox, bonfires out of control, materials disappearing from gardens.

Far from being a modern malaise this reflects the traditions down the ages in remembering 'the only honest man ever to enter parliament.'

A Secular and Religious Celebration

In protestant England saints days needed replacement in terms of popular celebration and merry making, indulgence and drinking. Gunpowder Treason Day, as it was originally known, was the perfect fit. From early on there was an undercurrent of uncontrollable behaviour. For example “In 1657 the Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, was greeted by a gunpowder squib thrown through his window".

By the 1670s London apprentices were turning the 5th of November into an anti-catholic fire festival. They stopped coaches demanding money for fireworks and bonfires, and in 1673 they burnt an effigy of the pope, possibly the start of the tradition of effigy burning on Guy Fawkes day.

Although the Catholic King, James II, banned fireworks in 1685 and tried to tone down the celebrations they remained resilient and in 1688 William of Orange landed in Britain on Nov. 5th! The Glorious Revolution, as it was termed, helped re-establish the protestant nature of the day, reinforced by his birthday celebrations on Nov. 4th.

Protest, Mayhem and Merriment

However by the end of the 18th century it was only one of 49 official holidays. For example the publication “An Almanac for…1775" showed 13 red-letter days for November. This included birthdays of Prince Edward, the Duke of Cumberland and Princess Sophia Augusta.

Below the elite level the holiday was often an excuse to don masks and wreak petty revenge or make social points. Bonfires became a focus point of unauthorised celebrations and activities.

In 1766 “a dreadful fire broke out at Kettering in Northants., occasioned by boys throwing squibs…the common people …called out tauntingly to a farmer whose ricks were on fire 'Now, farmer, will you sell your wheat at seven and sixpence a strike?'"

In 1785 Guy Fawkes Night in Lewes, Sussex degenerated into riots when “a lawless mob…pelted the Justice and constables with stones, brickbats and sticks.” Lewes also developed a tradition of rolling lighted tar barrels, which still continues today.

By the end of the 18th century Guy or sometimes 'Guido' Fawkes had become the principal figure to be burned in effigy year after year. Also what had been called Gunpowder Treason Day had become Guy Fawkes Night by the time of Queen Victoria.

Victorian Traditions

The event occasionally threatened to die out, but religious tensions always helped to keep the fires burning, especially with Irish immigrants in England for work. After 1850 the Catholic Hierarchy had been restored which created more mob related sectarian conflict.

The Act of Parliament from 1606, which had made the celebration official, was finally repealed by the Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859, but which only took away the official elite celebrations not the popular ones.

The tradition of effigies had expanded to include contemporary figures alongside Guy Fawkes on a regular basis. For example

The event started to become tamed in Victorian times, taking on an air of respectability with clubs, such as The Ye Olde Hampstead Bonfire Club and other societies forming. The firework displays became more controlled, sponsored by local business men.

Guy Fawkes in the Modern Age

The beginning of the 20th century saw the commercialisation process start. For example The Brock Company sold 20 million fireworks in 1908. Firework shows started to displace bonfires as the main focus with paid admission, spectator areas etc. Now there is a whole industry dedicated to the night, and making money from it.

One very old tradition has survived into the modern times and that is the ritualised searching of the cellars of the Houses of Parliament. This is carried out with lamplights by the Beefeaters, the Lord High Chamberlain, the Usher of the Black Rod, the Yeoman Usher and the Yeoman of the Guard.

Bonfires, Fireworks and Fun

Despite the many changes the event endures, penny for the guy or demanding money with menaces as it is known legally, the bonfires although mainly unofficial, still endure especially in the rougher areas, and fireworks help prop up the economy despite being the bane of small animals everywhere. It is not too much to imagine another 400 years.

Cannadine, David Ed., Gunpowder Plots: A Celebration of 400 Years of Bonfire Nights, 2005, Allen Lane, ISBN 0-713-99886-5

The copyright of the article 400 Years of Guy Fawkes Night Celebrations in UK/Irish History is owned by Jeffrey Baxter. Permission to republish 400 Years of Guy Fawkes Night Celebrations in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.