Bonfire Night

Remember, remember, 

the fifth of November 

Gunpowder, treason and plot, 

I see no reason 

Why Gunpowder Treason 

Should ever be forgot. 

Traditional rhyme

Bonfire Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, is celebrated in the UK every year on 5 November. On this day people remember the failure of Guy Fawkes and twelve other conspirators to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605.

Celebrations take place in every city, town or village, with bonfires, fireworks and various foods (meat and potato stew served with red cabbage, jacket potatoes and treacle toffee). 

In the past, children would make a ‘guy’ (life-size dummy) from old clothes stuffed with newspaper and take it around the streets, asking for ‘a penny for the guy’. They then used most of the money to buy fireworks or sweets.

Prepared by Dragana Videnov, an English teacher