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What is Bonfire Night in England? Who was Guy Fawkes and why do people wear his mask? In this English culture and history lesson I talk about the traditions of Guy Fawkes night and tell you the story of the Gunpowder Plot, which happened on November 5th 1605. Find out why Guy Fawkes wanted to blow up The Houses of Parliament and what happened to him when the plot was discovered. Find out also about how he was gruesomely tortured in The Tower of London for his attempt to kill King James I. I'll show you how we celebrate Bonfire Night in England today, and how these celebrations have changed even within my own lifetime.

TRANSCRIPT

Good day to you, students. In this lesson I'm going to talk to you about Bonfire Night and a man who once lived, called Guido Fawkes. We start with a story from a long time ago, in the year 1533, the king of England was King Henry VIII. And what King Henry did was he established the Church of England, and he split away from the Church of Rome and created a new religion called Protestantism. Then, in the long history that passed by, there were troubles between Catholics who wanted their religion to stay the same, and Protestants in the long history of England. Sometimes Catholicism was a religion of England, and other times Protestantism was the religion of England. So there were many troubles at that time.

 

We move forward to the year 1605, a different king, a different time. King James I was the king of England. Now, something terrible happened to King James I, and this is where our story gets really exciting. It was the 5th of November, in the year of 1605. It should have been just any other day in the parliament, the Houses of Parliament in London. But this was not just any day in the Houses of Parliament, for this was the day there was a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder. Pew. But, actually, it did not happen.

 

Why did somebody want to blow up the Houses of Parliament? There was a man, called Guy Fawkes or Guido Fawkes, as he was also known, and he wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and he wanted to kill King James I. And the reason for this terrible act to want to kill the king was because Guy Fawkes was a Catholic, and James I, as the king of England at that time, was a Protestant king. And Guy Fawkes, he wanted more rights for Catholics, so he believed in what he was doing, he thought if he blows up the Houses of Parliament, pew: "I shall get everything that I want and life in England should be good for Catholics."

 

But no, it did not work out that way. It did not happen because an anonymous letter was sent to one of the fine gentlemen who usually sits in the Houses of Parliament who was supposed to be there on that day, the great Lord Monteagle. And he received this letter, and can you imagine his surprise when he opened this letter and it said: "Do not go to the Houses of Parliament on the 5th of November because something might happen. Do not go." Now, of course, Mr. Lord Monteagle thought: "Well, this is... This is strange to receive such a letter. What might happen if I go to the Houses of Parliament on this day?" So he raised the alarm, and they went to search the Houses of Parliament, and that's where they discovered the 36 barrels of gunpowder, but just in time. It did not blow up.

 

So, who...? Who was behind this, this treasonous act, who was it? Who wanted to blow up the king and the Houses of Parliament? Why, it was me, it was me, it was Guy Fawkes. So, what did they do when they caught poor me, Guy Fawkes? Well, it was terrible, more terrible than you could ever imagine. First, they took me to the Tower of London, the terrible Tower of London and there they tortured me, like torture you have never heard so terrible before. More painful than you can ever imagine. They put me on the rack and they stretched out my arms and my legs until I was screaming and crying in pain for them to stop. They stretched my body so long, it was going on forever. I thought I would die, die of the agony. And they told me: "Confess to your... Confess to your terrible crimes. Confess. We will stop torturing you, we will stop stretching your limbs. All you must do is sign this confession. Sign, and we will stop torturing you." So I did what I could. My hands were like jelly, I couldn't hold the pen. I did what I could to sign my name and they did stop torturing me, but that was not the end.

 

The end was more horrific than you could ever imagine. A more ghastly end did not ever befall a man of all time. What they did was chop off my head, and chop off my limbs which were so long from this rack. But no, that was not enough for them. After I was hung, drawn, and quartered, they took my body parts all to the four corners of London as a warning, as a warning to anyone else who dare try to kill... Kill the king of England. So let you remember, remember the th of November with gun powder, treason, and plot. [Laughs]

 

So that's the story. That's the story of what happened to Guy Fawkes on the th of November in the year of . But we haven't forgotten... All this time later we haven't forgotten what happened to Guy Fawkes, and it's become a tradition to remember the events of November the th. And here's what happens in England. We light big bonfires, big fires, usually in the big parks, the big parks in London or any town or city across the UK there are big bonfires, there are also fireworks. Fireworks remind us of the bottles of... Bottles? Barrels, not bottles, of gunpowder.

 

We light sparklers. Sparklers, if you know what they are, they're the long thing, they make a hissing sound-"hiss"-and you can draw shapes in the air. Doesn't happen every time these days because we are... You could say the tradition is... Is being watered down, people are forgetting the story of Bonfire Night, and making it just about fireworks and bonfires. But a traditional Bonfire Night will burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes. And an effigy is a dummy that you make, so you make a Guy Fawkes, it's not a real one, you put newspaper to make the body and you put clothes on the body, and part of the tradition is to throw the Guy Fawkes on the fire, burn him, burn him for wanting to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

 

Well, they also do a lot around the time of the th of November is to light those noisy... Those noisy things you... You throw around in the street. Teenagers are fond of playing with bangers or firecrackers around the time of Bonfire Night. And what can you eat at the Bonfire Night display when you go to see the fireworks? Toffee apples are a traditional food. These are also a traditional food for... Traditional food for Halloween, and it's a very sweet kind of apple.

 

Personally, I don't like them, but that's the traditional food. But just as well as you're likely to see that, you're likely to see burger vans and places where you can get fast food. And an old tradition which I still used to see when I was younger, when I was below the age of I would say, was: Penny for the Guy. And this was a tradition where kids make their own Guy Fawkes effigy, so you get some... You get some tights, like a woman wears on her legs so she's not cold in the winter, you stuff that with newspaper for the legs, and do the same for the arms, you make a head out of something, you put some clothes on the Guy Fawkes, and you go around the street or you sit outside on the street places like you're begging, and you say: "Penny for the Guy. Penny for the Guy."

 

So you ask whoever's passing by for money. I used to see that when I was younger. I haven't seen it in a long time. I'm sure it still happens somewhere in England, but yeah. So, what seems to happen is that we have all this history of Bonfire Night, but some of the more unusual traditions or strange traditions are being lost, such as penny for the Guy, or even throwing Guy Fawkes on the fire, in our times, anyway. But whether you ever celebrate... Celebrate, I don't know, it's a festival, whatever you do. Whatever you do for Bonfire Night, whether you light fireworks, you're not really interested, I think it's a really fascinating time in English history, so I'm happy to share that story with you today.

 

As a little extra for this lesson, I'm going to perform to you a speech from V for Vendetta. Originally this was a comic book series by Alan Moore, and later it became a film. You may have heard of the film; it's called V for Vendetta if you're interested to check it out. And other than that, thanks for watching and I'll see you again soon. Voila! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished.

 

However, this valourous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.