Bonfire night 2016: Who was Guy Fawkes and where can you see the best firework displays?
Bonfire night 2016: Who was Guy Fawkes and where can you see the best firework displays?
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Keely Lockhart
6 November 2016 • 2:14pm
November 5 is the day when Britons everywhere set fire to things and let things off. But why?
What is bonfire night?
November 5 - which this year falls on a Saturday -  commemorates the failure of the November 1605 Gunpowder Plot by a gang of Roman Catholic activists led by Warwickshire-born Robert Catesby.
When Protestant King James I acceded to the throne, English Catholics had hoped that the persecution they had felt for over 45 years under Queen Elizabeth I would finally end, and they would be granted the freedom to practice their religion. 
When this didn't transpire, a group of conspirators resolved to assassinate the King and his ministers by blowing up the Palace of Westminster during the state opening of Parliament.
The arrest of Guy Fawkes in the cellars of Parliament pictured in a wood engraving. Credit: Universal History Archive/Un/REX
Guy (Guido) Fawkes, from York, and his fellow conspirators , having rented out a house close to the Houses of Parliament, managed to smuggle 36 barrels of gunpowder into a cellar of the House of Lords - enough to completely destroy the building.
(Physicists from the Institute of Physics later calculated that the 2,500kg of gunpowder beneath Parliament would have obliterated an area 500 metres from the centre of the explosion).
The scheme began to unravel when an anonymous letter was sent to William Parker, the 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him to avoid the House of Lords.
Guy Fawkes tried and failed to blow up Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot
The letter (which could well have been sent by Lord Monteagle's brother-in-law Francis Tresham), was made public and this led to a search of Westminster Palace in the early hours of November 5.
Explosive expert Fawkes, who had been left in the cellars to set off the fuse, was caught when a group of guards discovered him at the last moment.
Fawkes was arrested, sent to the Tower of London and tortured until he gave up the names of his fellow plotters.
Lord Monteagle was rewarded with £500 plus £200 worth of lands for his service in protecting the crown.
7 things you never knew about Guy Fawkes
Who were the Gunpowder Plot conspirators?
Guy Fawkes , Thomas Bates, Robert and Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Christopher and John Wright, Francis Tresham, Everard Digby, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, Hugh Owen, John Grant and the man who organised the whole plot - Robert Catesby.
The conspirators were all either killed resisting capture or - like Fawkes - tried, convicted, and executed.
The traditional death for traitors in 17th-century England was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in public. But this proved not to be the 35-year-old Fawkes's fate.
As he awaited his punishment on the gallows, Fawkes leapt off the platform to avoid having his testicles cut off, his stomach opened and his guts spilled out before his eyes.
Mercifully for him, he died from a broken neck but his body was subsequently quartered, and his remains were sent to "the four corners of the kingdom" as a warning to others.
Bonfire Night | Did you know?
The aftermath
Following the failed plot, Parliament declared November 5th a national day of thanksgiving, and the first celebration of it took place in 1606.
Following the plot, King James I sought to control non-conforming English Catholics in England. In May 1606, Parliament passed 'The Popish Recusants Act' which required any citizen to take an oath of allegiance denying the Pope's authority over the king.
Observance of the 5th November Act, passed within months of the plot, made church attendance compulsory on that day and by the late 17th Century, the day had gained a reputation for riotousness and disorder and anti-Catholicism. William of Orange's birthday (November 4th) was also conveniently close.
James I, King of England and Scotland. Credit: Heritage Images/Corbis
Guy Fawkes Day today
The Houses of Parliament are still searched by the Yeomen of the Guard before the state opening, which has been held in November since 1928. The idea is to ensure no modern-day Guy Fawkes is hiding in the cellars with a bomb, although it is more ceremonial than serious. And they do it with lanterns.
The cellar that Fawkes tried to blow up no longer exists. In 1834 it was destroyed in a fire which devastated the medieval Houses of Parliament.
Read more: 33 things that happen every November 5
Bonfire night in the UK
Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in the United Kingdom, and in a number of countries that were formerly part of the British Empire, with fireworks, bonfires and parades. Straw dummies representing Fawkes are tossed on the bonfire,  as well as those of contemporary political figures .
Watch | David Cameron holding pig effigy paraded through UK town on Bonfire Night
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Dummies have been burned on bonfires since as long ago as the 13th century, initially to drive away evil spirits. Following the Gunpowder Plot, the focus of the sacrifices switched to Guy Fawkes' treason.
Traditionally, these effigies called 'guys', are carried through the streets in the days leading up to Guy Fawkes Day and children ask passers-by for “a penny for the guy.”
Today the word 'guy' is a synonym for 'a man' but originally it was a term for an "repulsive, ugly person" in reference to Fawkes.
The fireworks represent the explosives that were never used by the plotters.
In Ottery St Mary, south Devon, in a tradition dating from the 17th century,  barrels soaked in tar are set alight and carried aloft through parts of the town  by residents. Only Ottregians - those born in the town, or who have lived there for most of their lives - may carry a barrel.
Lewes, in southeastern England, is also the site of annual celebration. Guy Fawkes Day there has a distinctly local flavour, involving six bonfire societies whose memberships are grounded in family history stretching back for generations.
The only place in the UK that does not celebrate Guy Fawkes Night is his former school St. Peter’s in York. They refuse to burn a guy out of respect for one of their own.
What are the key events?
Flaming Tar Barrels, Devon on Nov 5
 Ottery St. Mary's famous Tar Barrels festival is not for the faint-hearted. Don't like crowds or being close to flames? This event isn't for you. 
Lewes, Sussex on Nov 5
Six individual processions, 17 burning crosses, and plenty of costumed revelry and fireworks - this is the biggest and the only proper bonfire night celebration left of its kind in the UK.
Watch | The Tar Barrels of Ottery St. Mary
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Alexandra Palace, London on Nov 4/5
Ally Pally's annual Fireworks Festival marks Bonfire Night with a bang and attracts around 50,000 visitors. 
After Dark, Sheffield on Nov 5th
This event in the Don Valley Grass Bowl is Yorkshire’s big bonfire night event and attracts up to 20,000 people with fireworks set to music.
Remember the firework code!
Fireworks should be enjoyed at a safe distance and adults should deal with firework displays and the lighting of fireworks. They should also take care of the safe disposal of fireworks once they have been used.
Here are the 10 rules to follow
Plan your firework display to make it safe and enjoyable.
Keep fireworks in a closed box and use them one at a time.
Read and follow the instructions on each firework using a torch if necessary.
Light the firework at arm's length with a taper and stand well back.
Keep naked flames, including cigarettes, away from fireworks.
Never return to a firework once it has been lit.
Don't put fireworks in pockets and never throw them.
Direct any rocket fireworks well away from spectators.
Never use paraffin or petrol on a bonfire.
Make sure that the fire is out and surroundings are made safe before leaving.
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Make sure your pets are safe
As Guy Fawkes night approaches, animal welfare groups have issued warnings to pet owners: this can be a frightening and even dangerous time of year for pets.
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Who invented fireworks?
During the 10th century a Chinese cook discovered how to make explosive black powder when he accidentally mixed three kitchen ingredients – potassium nitrate or saltpetre (a salt substitute used in the curing of meat), sulphur and charcoal.
The cook noticed that if the concoction was burned when enclosed in the hollow of a bamboo shoot, there was a tremendous explosion.
Fireworks arrived in Europe in the 14th century and were first produced by the Italians. The first recorded display was in Florence and the first recorded fireworks in England were at the wedding of King Henry VII in 1486.
The word ‘bonfire’ is said to derive from 'bone-fire', from a time when the corpses of witches, heretics and other nonconformists were burned on a pyre instead of being buried in consecrated ground.
Big bang theory
In 2005, 1000kg (2204 pounds) of gunpowder stored in 36 wooden barrels was used to blow up a replica of the 1605 Westminster 'House of Parliament' to demonstrate the damage it might have caused.
'Anonymous' protests
November 5th has become an important date globally now that political activists all over the world are wearing Guy Fawkes masks to protect their identity.
These masks were inspired by Alan Moore's dystopian 'V for Vendetta', the 1988 graphic novel whose main character is loosely based on Guy Fawkes.
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There's a Guy Fawkes Island...
Isla Guy Fawkes (also known as Guy Fawkes Island) is a collection of two crescent shaped islands and two small rocks north-west of Santa Cruz Island, in the Galápagos Islands, which are part of Ecuador.