Every year on November 5, people across Great Britain gather around bonfires, set off fireworks, and chant the famous words:
“Remember, remember, the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason, and plot.”
It’s all part of Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night—a tradition that began more than four centuries ago in the wake of one of England’s most infamous conspiracies.
The Gunpowder Plot
The story begins in 1605, during the reign of King James I. A group of English Catholics, frustrated by the persecution they faced for their faith, devised a bold and deadly plan: they would assassinate the king and replace him with a Catholic ruler.
Among the conspirators was Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshire-born soldier and explosives expert. Raised in a Protestant family, Fawkes had secretly converted to Catholicism as a young man and later fought alongside Spanish Catholics in Flanders. His skill with gunpowder made him an ideal recruit for the plot’s mastermind, Robert Catesby.
Catesby and his fellow conspirators rented a cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament, where they stored 36 barrels of gunpowder—enough to destroy the entire building. Fawkes’ job was to light the fuse on the night of November 5, 1605.
A Plot Foiled
The plan unraveled when one of the plotters sent an anonymous letter to a Catholic member of Parliament, Lord Monteagle, warning him to stay away from the session that night. Monteagle, sensing trouble, showed the letter to the authorities.
A search of the cellars uncovered Fawkes, armed with fuses and ready to act. He was arrested, tortured, and later executed along with his fellow conspirators.
From Treason to Tradition
King James I survived, and the foiled plot was celebrated as a divine deliverance. People lit bonfires across the country in the king’s honor, and November 5 was declared a national day of thanksgiving.
By 1606, the first official celebration took place, and the tradition of burning effigies of Guy Fawkes began. Over time, children would craft “Guys” from old clothes, wheel them through the streets, and ask for “a penny for the Guy” to buy fireworks.
Interestingly, the word “guy” evolved from these effigies—first meaning a grotesque-looking person, and later, simply any man.
Bonfire Night Today
More than 400 years later, Guy Fawkes Night is still a cherished British tradition. Across the UK and parts of the former British Empire, the evening is marked with firework displays, community bonfires, and torchlit parades.
The town of Lewes in Sussex hosts the largest and most famous celebration, often called the “bonfire capital of the world.” The festivities there feature flaming crosses, burning barrels, torch processions through narrow streets, and spectacular firework finales hosted by seven separate bonfire societies.
The Legacy Lives On
Even today, the Gunpowder Plot hasn’t been forgotten in Parliament. Before every State Opening of Parliament, the Yeomen of the Guard still perform a ceremonial search of the Palace of Westminster’s cellars—just in case.