Remember, Remember the fifth of November, The Gunpowder treason and plot, I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
The gunpowder plot. In 1604, a small group of disgruntled Catholics hatched a cunning plot to kill the reigning monarch King James I during the state opening of Parliament. Their plan was to set off an explosion using 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden under the House of Lords, powerful enough to devastate Westminster, and to destroy the whole Protestant ruling class in a single great explosion, triggering a Catholic uprising in England.
Bonfire Night
The fifth of November is variously called `Firework Night', `Bonfire Night' or `Guy Fawkes Day'. An Act of Parliament was passed to appoint 5th November in each year as a day of thanksgiving for `the joyful day of deliverance' from Robert Catesby & Guy Fawke's attempts to blow up the house of Parliament in 1605 . The Act remained in force until 1859. On 5th November 1605, it is said the populace of London celebrated the defeat of the plot by fires and street festivities. Similar celebrations must have taken place on the anniversary and, over the years, became a tradition - in many places a holiday was observed.
It is still the custom in Britain on, or around, 5th November to let off fireworks. For weeks previously, children have been making guys - effigies supposedly of Fawkes - nowadays usually formed from old clothes stuffed with newspaper, and equipped with a grotesque mask, to be burnt on the November 5th bonfire. The word 'guy' came thus in the 19th century to mean a weirdly dressed person (e.g. 'The lady from the provinces who dresses like a guy') and hence in the 20th century in the USA to mean, in slang usage, any male person.
Institutions and towns may hold firework displays and bonfire parties, and the same is done, despite the danger of fireworks, on a smaller scale in back gardens throughout the country. Insome areas, such as Lewes and Battle in Sussex, there are extensive processions and a great bonfire. Children exhibit effigies of Guy Fawkes in the street to collect money for fireworks
Probably a little bit of family history with regards to this.
The Houghton’s of Lancashire England were underground supporters of Catholicism during days when the Catholic Faith was outlawed. They formed a Catholic secret underground society where the likes of William Shakespeare, Thomas Houghton , Alexander Houghton, Richard Houghton, Barthotomew Hesketh, Thomas Jenkins, Father Edmund Compain , John Finch, Debdale, Hunt & Robert Catesby where as you know further were recruited members of this secret society of the gunpowder plotters whose base was at Houghton Tower in the north of England in Lancaster.
