February 18
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night and Plot Night, is an annual celebration (but not a public holiday) on the evening of the 5th of November primarily in the United Kingdom, but also in New Zealand, South Africa, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada), and formerly in Australia, and to some extent by their nationals abroad. It celebrates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London on the evening of 5 November 1605, when the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) was within its walls.
The celebrations, which in the United Kingdom take place in towns and villages across the country, involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires, traditionally on which "guys", or dummies, representing Guy Fawkes, the most famous of the conspirators are burnt. Before the fifth, children use the dummies to beg for money with the chant "Penny for the guy", but the guy is now considered poor taste and is rarely used, perhaps because children are no longer allowed to buy fireworks with the proceeds, and just the bonfire remains.
T. S. Eliot references the Guy Fawkes night effigy in the opening lines of The Hollow Men: "Mistah Kurtz - he dead, A penny for the Old Guy".
It is also the subject of the song "Remember" by John Lennon, on the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
The rhyme and the Gunpowder Plot are alluded to in V for Vendetta, a comic by Alan Moore. Consequently, the first line of the rhyme "Remember, remember, the fifth of November" is the tagline for the popular film, V for Vendetta based on the comic.
An episode of the television show Daria depicts the spirit of Guy Fawkes Night looking and speaking exactly like Sid Vicious.
It is likely that Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix in the Harry Potter series, is named in reference to Guy Fawkes Night.
Leave a Comment
OH SNAP! IT'S JUSTIN!! =]
yay penny for the old guy!
posted May 22
Reggeacore
Add Comment here...
posted Aug 23
scarykid911
you guys are awesome
posted Feb 19
andyfacelovedrugged
you= rad. ;]
posted Sep 11