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Bonfire night is a celebration that takes place on November 5th.

It can also be known as Guy Fawkes night or Fireworks night.


Three things make Bonfire Night special;
1. There is a blazing bonfire that lights up the November sky.
2. There is a µdummy¶ or Guy that sits on top of the bonfire.
3. There are fantastic fireworks that add sparkling lights and
sound effects to the celebrations as the whistle, screech and bang
into the air.

Celebrations on 5th November remember an event


that happened in 1605. On that day the lives of King
James and his parliament were in danger as a plot to
blow them up was discovered. Guy Fawkes was
caught in the cellar with barrels of gunpowder.
ïere is a famous children¶s rhyme about Guy Fawkes;
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The leader of the plot to blow up the King was not Guy Fawkes
but a man called Robert Catesby. ïis plan was to rent a house next
door to the ïouses of Parliament and dig an underground tunnel
leading into the cellar of the Parliament buildings. They would
then use the gunpowder to blow the buildings up.

The men rented the house and started to dig a tunnel. They stored
36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellar ready for the state opening
on November 5th. They covered it with firewood to hide it from
the soldiers and Lord Mounteagle. At first they didn¶t see it, but
then the soldiers came and the plot was uncovered.
Guy Fawkes was discovered with barrels of gunpowder. ïe was
not the leader of the plot, but he was an expert with gunpowder.
Guy was in fact his nick name. ïis real name was Guido.

Guido was born in York and went to St. Peter¶s School. ïe


made friends with two brothers at school, John and Christopher
Wright, years later they all became members of the Gunpowder
Plot. When Guido left school he became a soldier. While he
was fighting in Spain he learnt how to use gunpowder.
After he had been captured by the Lord Chancellor and the
Lord Mounteagle, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London
and tortured but he would not give the names of the other
plotters. They were all eventually caught and found guilty of
treason and killed. Their heads were cut off and left on top of
wooden poles in the centre of London.
At one time in the days leading up to Bonfire Night, children
could be seen on street corners asking anyone who passed to give
a µpenny for the Guy¶. The children made a stuffed dummy using
old clothes, newspaper and sometimes straw. The dummy often
wore a mask and was sat in a wheelbarrow. The dummy
represented Guy Fawkes. It would be burnt on the bonfire on
November 5th.

Begging for a penny for the guy was a way in which children
could collect money to buy fireworks. Children under 18 are no
longer allowed to buy fireworks so the custom of penny for the
guy has started to die out. Sometimes, Guys are made to collect
money for charity.
An ancient Christian Bonfire Night
festival involving fire was first
and fireworks was held celebrated in
hundreds of years ago 1606 on the
in November. It was in anniversary
memory of St. of the plot to
Catherine who was put kill King
to death on a spiked James.
wheel. We now have
wheel shaped
firecrackers called
Catherine Wheels.
Over 130 Last year there At family
million were over 1500 garden displays,
fireworks were recorded sparklers cause
sold in Britain accidents more injuries
last year involving than any other
fireworks. firework.

The majority of Three sparklers Throwing a


firework burning together firework is a
accident happen create the same criminal offence
to children heat as a blow with a fine of
under 14. torch. £5000
Fireworks make loud noises when they fly into the sky. Look at the
sounds below. We call sound words   words

p  V 
p p ¢ 
 
„ „ ¢

ë  whoosh
whizz wh  V
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