by Cheryl Brand

Created on: November 03, 2010   Last Updated: November 05, 2010

 November 5 in England is Traditionally Guy Fawkes Day.

According to encyclopedia records Guy Fawkes was born in April of 1570 and died in January 1606. So Guy Fawkes had a short life of only 36 years. He is known for hatching a gunpowder plot to blow up parliament in order to assassinate King James I who was on the throne at the time. He had co-conspirators named as: Robert Catesby whom he met through Thomas Wintour. He met Thomas Wintour when he was in Spain fighting the Eighty Years War on the side of the Catholic Spanish. He met his end when his plot was uncovered and was consequently hanged on a scaffold.

Now when we were children growing up in England, we knew none of this information. All we knew was that it was November 5 and we could go out and solicit money from our neighbors and passers-by for the Guy. We would say “penny for the Guy Sir – or Madam” and with that money we would be allowed to go and buy fireworks for that nights excitement in the back yard. According to tradition from hundreds of years ago:  children  made an effigy of Guy that they would put in a “pram” and ride him around with them as they collected money. The effigy would be made with burlap and a mop head for hair with felt tipped pen eyes and nose and mouth and he would be stuffed into an old pair of jeans that was stuffed with an old pillow and properly belted around the middle.

On “Firework Night” which is what we call it casually, we would bundle up with hats and gloves and anything else we could find to keep us warm with and venture out into the back garden where my Mum would have sausages and potatoes roasting in their jackets on a makeshift barbecue. On the fence would be a Katherine-wheel already “pinned up”  ready for lighting later on and other fireworks strategically placed on the ground  for a light show.

Before all this we would sneak across the road behind the other row of houses on the other side of the street in the alley and there would be a great big stack of garbage, mostly old damaged furniture, garden rubbish and anything people wanted to get rid of from their houses. At the appropriate time of darkness they would put some fuel on the Guy and light a match and throw the Guy up on the top of the pile setting the bonfire alight.

This was great high-jinks for everyone.

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