Nowadays it's a small celebration with close friends and family in the back garden with some good food and drinks and a few fireworks and sparklers but still worth it every year to keep the tradition going. Many people want to cancel bonfire night home celebrations and restrict them to organised events due to the affect the loud noises and fires have on the wildlife, I only hope that the tradition doesn't get lost when the event becomes more commercialised. I'd really recommend you look at May day, it's a very old tradition in the UK (not actually a labour holiday) in Padstow specifically it's a surviving proto-indo european fertility festival and they go all out like Lewes do on Bonfire night.
I think Bonfire Night has changed over the years. When I was a child it was second only to Christmas in terms of the excitement it would generate. In the weeks before bonfire night I'd be spending my pocket money on buying packs of fireworks. Then on the night itself we'd have a big bonfire in the garden, as would our neighbours. I seem to remember we'd cook jacket potatoes around the fire and have hotdogs. Then we'd set off (most of) our collection of fireworks (usually saving a few for the next evening). The air would be thick with smoke from all the bonfires and fireworks. As children we knew of the story behind bonfire night, but that really wasn't in our minds as we enjoyed the evening.
Yes that's pretty much the way it was for me, and it was more or less kept to Nov 5th unless it fell on a Sunday. Now Bonfire night seems to last all week
I share those memories. Spending days beforehand building our 'guy', then loading him onto a cart (old pram wheels usually) and sitting around the local shopping area chanting "penny for the guy"! Afterwards taking our loot ( often several shillings) and getting some bangers/sparklers/roman candles...whatever we could afford and setting them off away from adult supervision😁 Come bonfire night Guy would be proudly loaded atop a household bonfire.(often would involve a scrap to determine which house Guy would be sacrificed at!) As you say, jacket potatoes roasted in the fire, Dad setting off the fireworks, Mum making sure we didn't die from burns etc. Golden memories!
Aye, same. Big family event. All our aunties and uncles, cousins. We'd host the bonfire party at different relatives house and alternate every year. All the kids would bring their guys, boxes of fires works to pool together for the display. Sometimes go to our grandparents house. Because we grew up on a council estate there was a local park with field. All the locals used to dump their rubbish, old furniture, things they wanted rid of that would burn etc into a big pile in the field leading up to bonfire night. All the locals would have a big party on the field and torch the massive bonfire. so sometimes we'd go there instead or go there after our house party.
They did, in fact, use to be quite common. The one in my home town was called Cooper's Magic Shop, and it was owned by David Cooper, Tommy Cooper's brother. When he died, his widow moved the business to Eastbourne where she and her daughter Sabrina ran it until 2017 when it was killed by Internet competition. Costumes were one of their big lines.
BTW, Bonfire Night is NOT a holiday, and neither is Halloween. Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night used to be something we as kids really got excited about. Then, in the early 80s, those Halloween films came out, and for reasons I will never fathom, we managed to import the ridiculous American Trick or Treating thing. Anyway, I'm loving your content.
I agree. Hunting for wood in the bombed out houses in Liverpool. Storing and guarding the wood from the other streets for weeks before. Halloween. Or bob apple night. Was far down the excitement list.
@@hardywatkins7737 Yes, not an import... "The history of trick-or-treating traces back to Scotland and Ireland, where the tradition of guising, going house to house at Halloween and putting on a small performance to be rewarded with food or treats, goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as does the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween."
The Sussex bonfire scene is pretty wild. Bonfire societies from across the county visit different towns on a weekly basis for a couple of months during the autumn leading up to to Guy Fawkes night. In Sussex, the bonfires commemorate Guy Fawkes but more specifically the burning of the protestant martyrs in Lewes by Mary Tudor who wanted to restore Catholicism. Sussex has a long history of protest, rebellion dating from the Barons War, the Reformation, the Commonwealth right through to Thomas Paine and the Rights of Man. The county motto is "We wunt be druv".
The video you watched seems very keen on framing the protestants as villains and the plotters as brave freedom fighters. The more common idea is that they simply wanted power in catholic hands (theirs specifically). They tried to raise a rebellion but nobody came except the king's soldiers. The famous rhyme "Remember, remember..." does celebrate the plot being foiled.
I mean most people i know see guy as the good guy, yeah he was a bit of a rotter but he tried to blow up parliament which i think almost every brit has wanted at some point.
@@seldom_bucket People say that but it's just a joke, if someone actually carried out a terrorist attack on parliament I doubt it would be celebrated...
@@user-zp4ge3yp2o He's not lying though ... that was true for many of us, that Guy Fawkes was the hero because he nearly blew up the government. - We were kids for goodness sake!
Speaking as a Brit with a humble background, we weren't told about the religious aspects as young children just that Fawkes was a bad man. Bonfire night for poor people (who weren't Catholic!) was a time for families to enjoy some firework displays. However, if you were poor, you could only afford small boxes of fireworks which didn't last long. So to make a "night" of the event we would make an effigy of Fawkes (out of contemporary clothes) and set them alight after the display. This provided an entertaining light display for a longer period of time. That's it really.
Speaking as a Catholic, we were told as kids that Guy Fawkes was not a bad man at all, and so we had no effigy on our home bonfire, just the fireworks, sparklers, and festive foods. For many years as a student and afterwards I attended a regular Bonfire Night party with friends that included a "best guy" contest, typically depicting an in-the-news political figure, or just someone that had hacked us off during the previous twelve months.
The religious part is suspect at best, yes all the conspirators were Catholics but that certainly doesn't mean it was a Catholic plot. (Although the town of Lewes thinks otherwise!).
Yes, and they were community events in working class areas. My Mum was in charge of toffee & toffee apples. Another family would do pork pies. Another mushy peas and so on. The money raised from ‘Penny for the Guy’ was used to buy fireworks. Dozens of us would gather at the bonfire. It was divine. We did understand the Catholic message as there was a Catholic family who used to joke to burn themselves for our pleasure - but it was all in good spirits.
It might be worth adding that the Houses of Parliament featuring in this story are not the ones they use today. The old building was originally built in stages from the C11th to the 1820s, but it was destroyed (by fire of all things) in 1834. Today's building was built between 1840-1876, incorporating Westminster Hall, which dates from 1097.
As a member of a Bonfire society, I can safely say that in Sussex its the best time of the year. The season starts mid September on Saturday nights and continues until mid November across various villages and towns. Lewes is by far the biggest and the highlight of the season- very crazy. There's a good couple of thousand people taking part in the multiple processions and many tens of thousands of people coming to watch. If you are planning to come down for next year i suggest you sort out where you are staying and how you are getting to/from the town as they usually close the roads and trains. Hope you can make it!
Lewes has six bonfire societies, and many of the surrounding villages and towns in Sussex have one of their own too. These latter tend to celebrate Bonfire in their own localities on days preceding the 5th November, but they join with the Lewes ones on that night for gigantic revelries. Though the majority of bonfire societies are in your neighbouring county East Sussex, your own town in Kent, Alanna, has a very distinguished one, Edenbridge BS (founded in 1928). Who knows, perhaps you will seek to join it yourself (details on their website)!
When I was a child, people used to make effigies of Guy Fawkes with old suits that would be stuffed with straw etc, and faces drawn on. Kids would go knocking on doors and ask ‘Penny for the guy’ so that would go towards fireworks. Then on bonfire night the effigy’s would be put on the bonfire and burned as a memorial to someone who tried to take down the parliament. Hope that’s helps. Have a look at the War of the Roses. Lancashire vs Yorkshire. Enjoy 😊 Niki 🧡
"as a memorial to someone who tried to take down the parliament.". - Exactly! 🤣 It was supposed to memorialise the foiling of the plot but i think most saw it the other way around ... that someone nearly blew up the government!
I am Lewes born and bred. Personally I never really got involved but my mother's family had been. Many families have members who have trained in pyrotechnics and the 7 societies make many of the fireworks are locally made. At 06.00 bonfire morning the whole town is awoken by a huge explosion, the Lewes rouser. It repeats at the close of the day. Thousands flock to the town and the shops are boarded up. The railway station closes and all the roads into the town are closed. The running of the burning tar barrels before throwing them into the river is done quite early but is worth seeing. It is a spectacular evening and night. You're right it is the biggest B/F celebration. Cliffe bonfire society is the most traditional. The processions march around the town for hours. Each society hold their own bonfire and each of the bonfires is about the height of a two story house and each society keeps its main tableau secret until the night. You need to be aware it's not very PC at times.
I live in sussex and went to Lewes bonfire a few times about 25-30 years ago. With roads and rails shut I have not been back since. How do people actually get in nowdays?
@@bobnevermindYou have to try and get a hotel room or airb&b, public transport usually runs up to midday, but is then shut down until the next morning. Same with the roads.
I knew the names of the other guys! In fact, if I remember my history lessons, Robert Catesby was more important in the Gunpowder Plot (as one of its architects) than Guy Fawkes (as a mere functionary) - it just so happens that Fawkes is remembered as having been the weak link that caused the plot to be foiled. It's likely that he's also remembered for having been tortured - unlike the video implies, he was racked to the extent that he could barely even hold the pen to sign the confession that sealed his fate and that of his co-conspirators. Bonfire Night has morphed largely into Fireworks Night since I was a boy, and it rather annoys me that nowadays it spills out over at least two weeks on either side of 5th November. When I was little, the fireworks took place only on that date and that made it all the more exciting. I looked forward to it every year, especially to being in the frosty night air of late autumn in the North West of England waving sparklers, admiring the fire and the explosions, eating chestnuts and drinking hot chocolate. You'd have loved it, Alanna, I suspect!
Catesby and Percy are probably the only conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot who are widely known among British schoolchildren, other than Guido Fawkes. At junior school I do remember drawing the big hats, beards, and seemingly long noses of a bunch of guys, as part of history projects in Michaelmas Term. However, only three names were regularly mentioned, and only Fawkes got the distinction of having a competition between each house as to the best effigy.
Robert Catesby is an ancestor of Kit Harington (John Snow from Game of Thrones) on his mother's side, although confusingly Harington is also related to James I as well on his father's side, so he's got ancestry on both sides of the story, that's why Harington was involved in the production of Gunpowder, the TV drama in 2017 about the Plot. Thomas Percy is one of the Percy family from Northumberland who have known to be involved in arguments with and links to the royal family going back to Henry IV's time (Harry Hotspur), Richard III (Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland), Anne Boleyn (6th Earl of Northumberland), Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots (8th Earl of Northumberland) and Charles I in the English Civil War (Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland). The other conspirators apart from Guy Fawkes all died in a shootout with the Royal Guard, reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid versus the Bolivian Army.
Alanna, what the videos didn't say was that many of the conspirators were wealthy, and some well known figures in their respective areas, this is how they were able to get the gunpowder in the first place, and barrels were used in storing and transporting many goods not just gunpowder so, the barrels themselves would not have caused concern. The celebration has changed over the years, when I was young during the '60s and early '70s it was commonplace to see children make a 'Guy Fawkes' effigy and take it door to door or just in the street usually on carts, old pushchairs etc, and would ask "Penny for the Guy" and they would be given a few pennies or so for their efforts, this would start a week or so before the night itself, once the night arrived the 'Guy' would be put atop of the bonfire either in the backyard/back garden of the child's home or sometimes on waste ground/recreation ground locally for burning, along with the letting off of fireworks, the children were given things like 'Bonfire Toffee' and 'Toffee Apples' to eat, and 'Sparklers' to hold, with the onset of health and safety and the growth of large organised displays this tradition has faded now.
I know the historical 'documentary' is a brief outline- but there are some errors.They actually rented the building next to Parliament- and dug through from the cellar there to the HoP cellar. The names of the co-conspiritors and their fates are well known to people who know their British history - but probably not to the average person at the Bonfire Night celebration. I think the truth is that there are two types of celebration going on. Most people (who give it any thought at all) are celebrating the thwarting of the Plot- when I was a child we would burn an effgy of Guy Fawkes on our street's Bonfire. However, there are particular locations where the Bonfire Night celebrations involve the burning of effigies of modern hate figures- often Politicians. I don't think many people are supporting Guy Fawkes' plot as such. Lots of people, like you just lik the excuse to have fireworks bonfires and treacle toffee!
Hey Alanna. I think your summary is fair. It's a celebration now. As a kid my dad would have a bonfire and fireworks in our garden and lots of friends and family were invited. I remember eating jacket potatoes, roasted corn on the cob and toffee apples. All rather fun as a young kid. Now I tend to meet up at a fireworks display with my brother and family.
100% agree with you on this one. It’s definitely just a tradition rather than celebrating the actual event. And like you, being an atheist, Christmas is also just a tradition to me rather than a religious holiday. Great video that I’m sure was informative for both British people and our friends across the pond. Byeee
Well we celebrated it in Australia until 1980 (when the nanny state raised it's ugly head), we knew it was Guy Fawkes night but usually called it bonfire night or cracker night. Great times sadly all gone.
I grew up in a small village and rather than individual bonfires we had a village one in a large field. Majority of the kids would collect fire wood from the woods attached to the village and build a huge bonfire for everyone to enjoy. It normally took about 3 days for it to burn out. This was at a time when regardless of your age you could into shops which stocked fireworks and buy them.
In pre-millenium (and may be a few years just after), bonfire night was about having a get together with either family and/or friends in your garden with a fire on the go to roast horse chestnuts, baked potatos and served with some alcoholic drinks. A kind of evening garden party really with fireworks thrown in so people can practice saying "ooooH" and "aaaaH" everytime something sparkly went up in the air! :P
The story really begins with Henry VIII's schism with the Roman Catholic church which began the whole enmity with devoutly Catholic Spain. Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshireman, enlisted with the Spanish army (becoming Guido Fawkes) to fight Dutch protestants in the Eighty Years War.
The Dutch protestants would have been doing their thing with or without Henry VIII. The Protestant Catholic schism started in continental Europe, not in England. Indeed Henry VIII always saw himself as Catholic, just not one controlled by Rome, and the church of England he founded was Catholic in nature. There are members of the CoE to this day who maintain that the CoE is still Catholic and the Oxford movement in the 19th century built a number of churches, notably in Oxford and Brighton which many call "high church". They have the gilding, statues and incense burning more typical of Catholicism. Meanwhile, even before Henry VIII split with Rome, there has been growing Protestant movements in England, Wales and Scotland. William Tyndale had, illegally, translated the Bible into English against Catholic doctrine and ended up paying for it with his life with the full approval of Henry VIII. That was in 1536, long after Henry had split from the Roman church. The Scots went their own particular way with the rather austere Calvanism, rather than the other main continental European Protestant model of Lutherianism. Many in England had adopted the latter during Henry VIII's reign, and they kind of high-jacked Henry VIII's process with his one surviving son, Edward, educated, or maybe indoctrinated, as a hyper-Protestant king. He was to die young, to be replaced by the equally religiously intolerant Mary I (bloody Mary) and then the rather more pragmatic Elizabeth, who gradually became more Catholic as Spain was perceived as a threat to her life and throne. The Stuarts were, equally, all over the place with James I/VI the being very Protestant and his grandson James II/VII being increasingly Catholic to be brought finally to the end with Mary II (co-regnant with William of Orange), another Stuart and the daughter of James III. So that schism with the Roman Catholics was already brewing in England and Scotland prior to Henry VIII splitting from Rome. James I was a Scot, not English, and thus his Protestantism was not due to Henry VIII alone. Very possibly not even mainly due to Henry.
@@TheEulerID I mentioned the Dutch Protestants as a sidenote why Guy Fawkes, an Englishman born in Yorkshire, became Guido Fawkes after enlisting in the Spanish Army; they had little relevance to the Gunpowder Plot otherwise. I never said Henry VIII or the CoE were Protestant in the modern sense - it was seen as heretical for rejecting the authority of the Pope in Rome, and we all know how fond Spain was of heretics, whether they were Catholic or not; no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition! 😄 Although there were Protestent movements in Europe, the issue was Henry (and all subsequent monarchs) being the head of the 'heretical' non-orthodox CoE. As an Englishman, Guido Fawkes (and the other conspirators) would have a particular axe to grind with the English monarch, hence the Gunpowder Plot and why I said it all began with Henry VIII as the pivotal instigator. Silly me for trying to keep what I had to say relevant and to the point instead of witing an essay though.
@@TheEulerID I went to a junior school that was aligned with the local Church of St. Mary Magdalene we as a school walked to the Church on a Wednesday and had a mass. I was an altar boy and on a Sunday I was the Thurifer one who carries the Thurible that contained the burning incense. This was Church of England and a high church.
anyone remember 'penny for the guy'? not seen that for years, maybe a victorian tradition when poor kids got the opportunity to make a few pence by installing an effigy of guy fawkes on a street corner somewhere. Also one of the videos refers to guy fawkes day, nobody in the uk would know that. Its guy fawkes night! Also now known as fireworks night (clue's in the title)
@@hardywatkins7737 I used to do the Penny for the Guy thing when i ws a kid. ( have a dummy dressed up and ask people for a penny for the Guy ) Im 50 now for context
According to Antonia Fraser's book on the plot, gunpowder manufacturers were allowed to sell any that the government didn't need on the open market and a recent anglo-spanish peace treaty meant there was a lot of excess knocking about, not very well secured. On a smaller scale it was also common for soldiers to sell their gunpowder to supplement their pay.
For the best bonfire celebrations,you have to go to East Sussex,a lot of towns and villages have their own bonfire societies but it does mean you have to cross the M20 (passport not required )
As a fellow Canadian, from Chatham-Kent. I can say it is still known and may be celebrated or remembered by some, more common in loyalist areas. I am involved with historical groups that mainly portray the War of 1812. Black Powder would have been readily available in that era as others have posted. 1 pound of powder is enough to send a 3lb cannonball almost 1km. So over 2000 lbs would have been shocking. The documentary, The Gunpowder plot: Exploding the legend. Recreated the event and building to show what the effect would have been
Fudamentally disgaree that we're celebrating Guy Fawkes as a rebel/hero - I'm old and I've never heard this take before. We all know that we're celebrating the foiling of the Catholic plot, and that's why we build an effigy of Guy Fawkes and burn it. Over the years though it has definitely become less important. When I was a kid the celebrations were always on November 5th, and loads of families would have their own bonfires & fireworks. But then people started moving it to a convenient weekend which I think diminished it a bit. A lot of people also stopped doing their own celebrations and instead relied on larger community events, which again I think reduced its importance. And now the rise of Hallowe'en is starting to overshadow it - thank you American TV & film.
il tell you why this is happening, its because the americans cant handle that we dont like catholics and they try and turn the terrorist fawkes into a "freedom fighter" its ingrained in american culture that catholics can do no wrong, hell even the current american president supports terrorists and has helped fund catholic terrorism for all his adult life and yet nobody cares or attacks him for it.
I agree. I'm 79, and still recall the times of individual bonfires/parties. We never "Celebrated" the efforts of Guy Fawkes; he was a bad guy (sorry!), and his end was justified at the time, for trying to kill the king, and the elected MPs, just because he, Guy, didn't agree with his relious policies. Pure Treason! i also remember eating the baked potatoes that were wrapped in either foil, or sometimes, mud, then baked in the edges of the bonfire. We kids relished these spuds, and we even were told that gypsies did this with hedgehogs! How true that was I have no idea!
I'm American-born but my mother and family are British (Leicester in the midlands). I learn so much about my ancestral history and modern England from you it makes me feel out of touch. Time to take a long holiday to the motherland! Thanks Alanna!!
Leicester born and bred here🙋♂️ Nice to meet another person with connections to Leicester. Always welcome to visit. For me, I think most English people learn about the gunpowder plot and the history of bonfire night as kids. To be honest, as it's a true British historical event, it's an exclusive British tradition that was also celebrated in some countries under the rule of the British empire. The symbol that the king (the most powerful ruler in the world at that time) was saved. And whether people see it that way or not, I think everyone knows why we have bonfire night
I remember Catherine wheels not spinning on the washing line post. rockets clattering on neighbour's sheds. bonfires in everyone's gardens .drawing shapes with sparklers. baked potatoes in the fire and mulled elderberry wine with bits of orange and cloves floating in it.
It used to be fun as a kid, putting your parka on backwards and sitting outside the pub, 'penny for the guy'. Last time in the UK 2019 was spoilt not by trick or treaters, but by people setting off fireworks a month early.
Lewes is EASILY the BEST place to celebrate Bonfire Night (and it ain't THAT far from Kent, Honey!). Fantastic fun - and the Police maintain only a discreet and respectful presence. Combine with a pint or two of real ale or cider🙂, walk/stagger down to your chosen (very big) bonfire site (of which there are at least five) after the street processions, and your have the PERFECT recipe for an evening you'll remember forever. Trust me on this! BTW - the Lewes festivities are in fact a TWO-in-one event: the 'traditional' Guy Fawkes Night, but also the COMMEMORATION of the 17 Protestant martyrs who were burnt at the stake there, during the reign of Bloody Mary (a fanatical Catholic - like Guy Fawkes!).
Bonfire night is still celebrated in Canada, but only in Newfoundland and Labrador. It used to be moderately celebrated throughout many parts of Canada, but apart from in Newfoundland and Labrador, celebrating it had died out by the beginning of the 20th century. It's still moderately celebrated in parts of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the former British Caribbean.
To my mind the most amazing Bonfire Night traditions are Lewes (which you saw) for the scale and commitment, and also Ottery St Mary in Devon where they run flaming barrels of tar down the street - the barrels range from little ones for children to carry on their backs(!) up to a giant one which requires four large men to carry on their backs together. Don’t worry though - they’re protected from the flames by rugby shirts and oven gloves.
Yes, Lewes has the history and the tradition: it's personal, so it carries on. It's just huge. There are six bonfire societies, each parading to their own bonfires, so it takes all evening. Not only does the town shut down, but the St John Ambulance brigade takes over the ambulance service, too, with enough members from Sussex, etc., in attendance.
im over 60 now, but in my childhood we used to make a guy, they actually sold guy masks back then. we made limbs out of (panty hose ) tights stuffed with news paper and put on it some old clothes and stood at the local train station with the poor fella sat in a pushchair or something asking for Penny for the Guy. This was just to get money to buy fireworks lol
As a kid growing up in Scotland I remember 'Guising' whiich involved as making our effigy of Guy Fawkes then taking it around asking people for 'A penny for the guy' which we then spent on fireworks. We would also scour the area collecting any wood to make a bonfire from. This was back in the late '60s/early '70s. We didn't know anything about the history of it, just loved the idea of a big fire and of course the fireworks.
guising was on halloween you went round the doors of your local area and told a joke or a story at each door for a sweet or some form of treat. penny for the guy was making a guy and taking it round or sitting on a corner or outside the local pub or shop asking for money supposedly for materials for the bonfire or the fireworks for the celebration on the 5th of nov.
I think you will find halloween has been very Americanised hence why it has dropped massively in popularity in the UK. In the 90s and before at least in Scotland halloween was a lot more popular than now but kept a lot more traditional than the commercialised version that they do today
Halloween is huge in the UK, it is an old Pagan holiday.. lots of shops sell vintage clothing. With other shops selling dressing costumes, used for Birthdays, hen or stag nights, clubbing events and other fun. Guy Fawkes night now is now just fun, sometimes the effigy has a mask of a politician who is unpopular. It is now a gathering. Lewes is in England. Lewis is in Scotland.
I was born on 5th November (Bonfire Night) 69 years ago. My dad told me that Guy Fawkes was the last person to enter Parliament with honest intentions. 😂
we do hallowe'en here, its an ancient druid festival (samhain[saa'wyn]) - but we celebrate it slightly differently. The 'trick or treat' part is quite american but it comes from 'guising', that Irish and Scottish like to claim is exclusively from them but was ubiquitous across the isles. For us it's like the darker myth side of something like Dia de los muertas, witchcraft etc, rather than costumes and sweets - on hallowe'en there are many haunted mansion tours(eg; Chillingham castle)
Hi Alana, my bonfire nights was in the late 50s and 60s in the Black Country on the edge of the countryside. The rime we all learned at school Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. Bonfire night actually started for us kids about a month before because we used to have the bonfire at home in the garden out the back. At that time there was two priorities 1. Getting the firewood and any wood would do, from the hedge rows last years old bed frames etc. 2. Building “a Guy” this was made from old clothes and any materials we (as kids ) could find and scrounge! 3. Getting money for fireworks. The fire wood was got, as said, from the local area hedge rows, near the brooks and streams where trees were abundant dragging it home between us. We even used small choppers if there was no wind broken branches. The old bed carcasses from any old dumps that might be local. It took us weeks to get much you know us 10 to 14 year olds couldn’t carry much. The Guy was a bit of a team effort with the mums and us kids. Mums sowing the old cloths together in what we now know as a mannequin from old trousers and jumpers and tee shirts, you know the throw away’s, and shoes. They also made the head probably with an old cap or Woolley hat. Us kids would find loads of old newspapers and material to stuff the Guy with. To get the fireworks or rather the money for fireworks, we’ll that needed the Guy. We would go round the streets knocking doors for the traditional “Penny for the Guy” scrounging demand from the neighbours, this was together with down the village shops for the same reason getting all the pennies we could for buying fire works. This would be more successful with a good looking Guy of course. The week before the night would be when we’d build the bonfire. These weren’t that big of course back garden size not big enough for anything much over 4ft tall. Of course we’d give the Dads the money to buy the fireworks of course you couldn’t get many with the the pennies we got for the Guy. Bonfire night was brilliant. Setting light to the fire, putting potatoes around the base for roasting and the mums making the peas pudding etc. Dads lit the fireworks as long as they lasted. It was exciting and marvellous but it was all about families joining together to make a night of it. There was no Halloween though that’s a Scottish tradition nothing to do with us. That was our traditional bonfire night families and kids coming together because it was traditional. Strangely enough It was at Holbeche (we pronounce it Holbeach) House in Wall Heath, near Dudley, where many of the plotters made their last stand - just down the road from Himley Hall. The strange bit was that was my village growing up never really heard any of that while at school. Just a 1/2 mile from our house, only found this out in later years. You will have to go to your local Fireworks display I’m afraid!! No penny for the Guy for you my girl your too old!! Ha!
I've never been in Britain for Bonfire Night. On my "bucket list" is going to Otter St Mary in Devon for Bonfire Night so I can see the villagers run through the street with flaming tar barrels on their backs!
I live close by, not in Lewes (Loo-issssss) and have been a few times - its an experience that the videos don't quite convey - such as narrow the streets really are, how noisy the fireworks are and how intense the light from the fireworks. There is an air of over protectiveness now which is typified by the closure of roads and the railway station to stop outsiders attending. Despite the rain, the estimate for 2023 was 20,000 visitors but I have attended in torrential rain when the crowds were almost twice that number. Outsiders now park along way outside Lewes and walk in - not easy on unlit country roads, such as the road to Ringmer village. I strongly suggest you attend in the next few years - it really is worth the effort. Not shown in the videos is that there are five bonfire societies in Lewes and each has a large bonfire and firework display which can be viewed from miles away but is better experienced close to. ... and finally, the parade walkers are not dressed as pirates in stripy jumpers - they denote the Sussex bonfires societies who raise large sums of charity money each year. Each society has it own local event which starts mid September and ends mid November.
Bristol (Brizol) have well organised bonfire, noisy fireworks & food for kids & parents alike. The ‘Roundtable’ event in Brizol-Downend is always packed. 👍
i went to the Grammar School in Lewes. the school is over 500 years old and like the town its steeped in history. bonfire night was the highlight if our year. it was pure carnage, exciting and dangerous. With the Castle and the tight streets totally full of people the atmosphere was incredible. Lewes also had the most pubs per capita in the country so lots of booze (starting at 14 lol, everyone used to get served). its a bit more tame these days but still worth a visit for sure.
@@mystified1429 yeh it was the old grammar school, i always thought the other grammar school was just a girls school? did it change to the priory school, what year was that?
@@anthonyjarvis9472 The Girls was near Southover Grange gardens and the boys was Mountfield rd. Next to the Sec. Mod. with a big fence round it ! Both changed in 1969 to Comp. and the fence was pulled down. Then called Priory school. Made me a Socialist because of it's elitism.There was a mix of good teachers and total eejits. LOL. Hope you did well @ yours, and it was worthwhile.😀
Yes, you are right that it is (or was in my day) more of a tradition than anything else. It was about the event not the message but the message was still there in the background with the effigies and the message was definitely there at school. As kids we also celebrated him as an anti-government rebel (which wasn't approved of) and IMO, we could do with him again. At least figuratively, if not literally.
Lewes is the (main) county town of East Sussex. EVERY town and village in East Sussex has a Bonfire Society, and from September until Nov 5th a different place will have their Bonfire procession/fireworks display. This culminates in Lewes having the mother of all these processions/bonfire displays on or as near to Nov 5th as possible.
The adoption of Fawkes as a folk hero is relatively new, and is largely a result of the 'graphic novel' and subsequent movie 'V'. For a while the mask used in 'V' representing Fawkes was a very common thing seen at protests - I have even seen it worn at protests in Canada. Despite not being 'my sort of thing' I'd recommend watching the movie, it’s quite good.
yes we did that wrap up potatoes tin tin foil let them cook the skin was burnt but the potatoe i remember as being better than a jacket potatoe standing round a bonfire and watching fireworks going off sometimes i would throw throw in fireworks in the bonfire it looked nice (i was having a arty faze in my life) oh yes eating parking (its a short of cake) drinking mugs of tea coffee hot chocolate also eating sandwitches though maybe not in that order then we all take it in turns to say what we are looking forward to for the rest of the year
halloween used to be a really big thing in scotland at least . somewhere around the early 90s it started morphing into trick or treating like the american version .now it seems to be dieing out slowly
The hats are a fashion from roughly the same time as the Mayflower pilgrims. I've read the buckles are a bit of ridiculing from outsiders but the basic hat is quite similar.
The UK does not have many costume shops for that exact reason. We are NOT the US or Canada. The UK has the lived the real history. Which is why Ren Fairs etc is not really a thing over here.
Ren Fairs are very much a thing here, they just aren't called Ren Fairs. If you google "medieval reenactment" before summer every year, you will find many castles putting on "Ren Fairs" complete with costumes, mead, and simulated battles.
@@lukesball1 I consider the two events different things. Many reinactments are just that. Typically reinacting a historic battle. I do not lump US reinactors in to Ren Faires either.
New mic makes you sound like you are on local radio. Lewes (said the same way as Lewis) is unusual in that it takes the religious war to a new level by burning an effigy of the pope every year (!!!) Some of the models have been quite impressive to look at.
I concur with all the previous comments. However, I have followed and enjoyed your channel for a long time. Unfortunately on this one it seemed like you had imbibed or smoked something. The interrupting commentary totally eroded the flow of presentation. Was disappointed.
Damn it, I thought we were celebrating the last time someone entered Parliament with any honest intentions !!! :) Lets face it, it is just another excuse for people to eat a lot, and get as pissed as a fart! the same as Xmas. :)
Hi Alanna, Thanks for another informative video. I love to learn about history. As an American, I have never heard of Guy Fox Day, so you taught me something new. Thanks again, Marc K
It brings memories of going out with our 'Guy' on our 4 wheel cart and asking for 'penny for the guy' . The guy was old clothes stuffed with newspaper and a masked head. Any money taken was used to buy fireworks. I always remember a man said we were beggars once and that put us off a bit. I can't see that happening any more. The stuffed guy was thrown on the bonfire. It used to be a popular event.
Lewes (loo-wis) as in the Scottish island of Lewis. It is the county town of East Sussex, was the county town of the whole of Sussex when it was a single county. It has a wonderful Norman gatehouse and was the scene of the Battle of Lewes in 1264, arguably one of the most important battles in English constitutional history. I did work with a member of the Cliffe Bonfire Society and helped him make his full Viking costume from real bronze, brass and leather, plus fireproofing and weighing several pounds. He would wear it for 5 or more hours on bonfire night also joining in other celebrations around Sussex and Kent. My cousins have pulled the burning tar barrels in the race and a friend took the 'service' at the Cliffe Bonfire standing on a high platform with fireworks being thrown at him. Walt Disney filmed it one year although I don't know what happened to the film. I took my nephew to it the year before 'lockdown'. I had told my niece and nephews that Lewes people have to be rebellious and eccentric. After attending the precessions and one of the 7 bonfires he just said Lewes people are crazy and dangerous. I'll take that!
Agreed, we are crazy. My uncle was in Cliffe bonfire society. He dressed as a Viking for years and him and his stepson even went to see my aunt in the hospital when she gave birth while they were dressed up. In later years he became a Highlander.
Lewes is bonkers and a tad wild. Sussex is the best place for bonfire parades and Lewes is the best. Been a few times and can be scary. The town shuts and you need to plan the visit as roads in are closed, buses don’t run and the rail station closed. Cliffe bonfire after the parade is huge and probably the best of the Lewes bonfire societies.
@@toni-kaku I believe it is an effigy of the Pope at the time of the plot, rather than current Pope. He was burned as it was believed that he was part of the plot. Other people are also burned (in effigy), often the current Prime Minister.
Trains no longer stop there on bonfire day, at least they didn’t last year. It’s to keep the crowds down as it was getting dangerous. The Pope effigy is still burned but not because of the bonfire plot. The Catholic Queen Mary had 17 Protestants burned and they are known as the Lewes martyrs. The Pope is burned because of that even though he didn’t have anything to do with it. 17 burning crosses are carried in the parade in memory of their sacrifice.
I too am from Kent but I happened to be in Lewes for work one year on November 5th. I can confirm that the celebrations are actually mad, with all those flaming items being dragged through the High Street. Really glad I was able to experience it.
Allannah the nursery Rhyme that we learned in school is as follows" Remember Remember the 5th of November!! GUNPOWDER, TREASON & PLOT!! For I see no reason for the Gunpowder Treason to Ever be Forgot ?? This was not the modern Houses of Parliament but the old Westminster Palace that later burned down all that is left today is Westminster Hall & the Jewel Tower!!
Most European and Indo-European and northern hemisphere based cultures have an autumn post-harvest 'festival of lights' celebration as the autumn equinox comes around. Its linked to pre-Christian traditions that sneaked past the introduction of Christainity. It usually involves bonfires and torches etc. Every few centuries a new reason to have it is introduced to ignore the pagan roots. In north america they adopted Halloween as the excuse to continue the celebration Until the 1980's we did not really celebrate Halloween and so Guy Fawkes night or 'bonfire night' was our big autumn festival of lights. I think the Discovery program is wrong. I don't think any British person celebrates Guy Fawkes as 'rebel'. I don't think it even occurs to them. Its just an old tradition with a new face. The same celebration was happening before the Roman's turned up. It was celebrated by them and was continued by the Anglo-Saxons as a Germanic autumn celebration. Plenty of pagan beliefs managed to survive Christainity like Beltain/Walpurgis'(May day), Eostre (Easter), Samhain (Halloween) Yule (Christmas). You could probably include 'Well dressing' and morris dancing' too, because I think its safe to assume they have pagan origins. Oh and don't forget 'wassailing'.
Not really correct. There was no English tradition of bonfires in the Autumn months before 1605 and the Gunpowder Plot - the seasons for fires in England was Midsummer and New Year. Beltain was an Irish festivity (and in those areas of Irish influence) and didn't occur in England. Easter isn't pagan - there is only one reference to the supposed spring goddess 'Eostre' with no corroborative evidence. Halloween is a mixture of the Irish Samhain, the Christian feasts of All Saints & All Souls and Hollywood. That there was a festival of Yule is debatable as there is little evidence - the Danes in England called the festival of the Nativity 'Yule'. Well Dressing, Morris Dancing and Wassailing are not pagan in origin - medieval or later.
@@Wotsitorlabart "Well Dressing, Morris Dancing and Wassailing are not pagan in origin - medieval or later." - I'd add maypole dancing to that list, but i suspected those are all much later traditions.
@@hardywatkins7737 Yes, earliest references to maypoles in England (although actually in a Welsh poem) are mid 14th century. Well Dressing 18th/19th century. Morris Dancing - mid 15th century. Wassailing the trees - earliest reference Kent 1585.
Great video Alanna, I really like these where you go a little deeper into the quirks of British culture!. Just a point from the first Josh Gates video, I've never heard of Guy Fawkes being celebrated as a rebel. I'm English and have been around for quite some time! I think he may have been talking to some rather unsavoury people to get that view!
It's probably more accurately known as the "Catesby Plot" as he seems to have been the main man behind it. Guy Fawkes was the fall guy, a religious terrorist nutter, who was easily talked into it.
I think you're right about bonfire night just being about the tradition. Few pay attention to the history, although most people know it (I assume). To be honest, I've only been to a public firework display twice in my life. The more recent one was in 2021. Pretty good. As to Halloween decorations, I don't think they were a thing here until about 2010. At least, i never saw them in shops until then. I have bought some this year, though. 🎃👻
The English Parliament were cowardly & clueless after Oliver Cromwell died. They invited back a monarch & the House of Lords in a counter-revolution that re-installed remnants of feudalism that has held Britain's development back that remains here still. They partially reversed the counter-revolution in 1688-89 but the remnants of feudalism remain to this day. Digging up a corpse and hanging it is the spite of defeated forces who always lost when Oliver Cromwell was alive. The corpse was used as a terrorist device against the population and rotting bodies were often used like this.
when i was at school ( lol a long long time ago in a distantant galaxy where time was forgot) we celebrated bonfire night during school hours (in a safe way way no setting fire to anything) it was a night time thing here is something some of you may not know a little poem...remember remember the 5th of november gun powder treason and plot i see no reason why gun powder treason should ever be forgot
You need to go to Sussex for the real Bonfire experience. Lewes is the big one of course but such a logistical drama. There are so many more smaller ones around East Sussex. From your Medway location, go to Rye is my suggestion. Nov 11th this year. Got to be seen to be believed has a Sussex Bonfire procession and Bonfire, a spectacle. X
Those of us who are of our four nations understand the significance of this event as it is a major part of our history, not so much those who identify as British
four nations folk identify as English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh & have a long bloodline on these isles, British has in recent decades become a generic term for those who have come from outside the UK and then had children here, before the industrial revolution movement of people was very limited
I love the music being played by the brass band dressed a bit like mounties in the last clip: it's the Thunderbirds theme tune, and it takes me back to my childhood in the 1960s.
In the West Country the celebrations are called Carnival and there are a series of them in various towns with competitive clubs building decorative floats. The Largest of these is probably Bridgwater which dates from 1605. The towns were strongly Protestant back then and one of the plot instigators was from the area. Carnival nowadays is less Guy Fawkes/Gunpowder Plot themed, the fireworks are called "Squibs". It is not a coincidence that it's also the new seasons Cider production. The same clubs turn out for "Wassailing" in New Year to encourage the Apple Trees, a more Pagan Celebration. It involves cider soaked toast and firearms.
About twenty years ago there was a theory going round that the barrels of gunpowder would be insufficient to blow up the Houses of Parliament as they were at that time, so one of the tv stations, Channel 4 I think, held a kind of reconstruction of the Gunpowder Plot using the same amount of gunpowder mixed to the same formula that was used at the time. A building was constructed with a heavy floor and then the powder was set off. The building was blown to smithereens......
How do you celebrate Bonfire Night?? ALSO! I have a monthly newsletter, if you want to sign up 😊 adventuresandnaps.com/newsletter
Usually I celebrate quietly (trying to avoid the fact that I'm a year older on that day).
@@goingnowhere7845 To be fair, being a year older is better than the alternative.
Nowadays it's a small celebration with close friends and family in the back garden with some good food and drinks and a few fireworks and sparklers but still worth it every year to keep the tradition going.
Many people want to cancel bonfire night home celebrations and restrict them to organised events due to the affect the loud noises and fires have on the wildlife, I only hope that the tradition doesn't get lost when the event becomes more commercialised.
I'd really recommend you look at May day, it's a very old tradition in the UK (not actually a labour holiday) in Padstow specifically it's a surviving proto-indo european fertility festival and they go all out like Lewes do on Bonfire night.
@@stephenlee5929 Very good point.
I don't bother anymore with it
I think Bonfire Night has changed over the years. When I was a child it was second only to Christmas in terms of the excitement it would generate. In the weeks before bonfire night I'd be spending my pocket money on buying packs of fireworks. Then on the night itself we'd have a big bonfire in the garden, as would our neighbours. I seem to remember we'd cook jacket potatoes around the fire and have hotdogs. Then we'd set off (most of) our collection of fireworks (usually saving a few for the next evening). The air would be thick with smoke from all the bonfires and fireworks. As children we knew of the story behind bonfire night, but that really wasn't in our minds as we enjoyed the evening.
Yes that's pretty much the way it was for me, and it was more or less kept to Nov 5th unless it fell on a Sunday. Now Bonfire night seems to last all week
Collecting wood for the fire back in the day when you could light one anywhere. 😂
I share those memories. Spending days beforehand building our 'guy', then loading him onto a cart (old pram wheels usually) and sitting around the local shopping area chanting "penny for the guy"! Afterwards taking our loot ( often several shillings) and getting some bangers/sparklers/roman candles...whatever we could afford and setting them off away from adult supervision😁
Come bonfire night Guy would be proudly loaded atop a household bonfire.(often would involve a scrap to determine which house Guy would be sacrificed at!) As you say, jacket potatoes roasted in the fire, Dad setting off the fireworks, Mum making sure we didn't die from burns etc. Golden memories!
Aye, same. Big family event. All our aunties and uncles, cousins. We'd host the bonfire party at different relatives house and alternate every year. All the kids would bring their guys, boxes of fires works to pool together for the display. Sometimes go to our grandparents house.
Because we grew up on a council estate there was a local park with field. All the locals used to dump their rubbish, old furniture, things they wanted rid of that would burn etc into a big pile in the field leading up to bonfire night. All the locals would have a big party on the field and torch the massive bonfire. so sometimes we'd go there instead or go there after our house party.
Yep agreed now its big business.
We don't need costume shops in the UK because we all have capes, crowns and large hats at home.
They did, in fact, use to be quite common. The one in my home town was called Cooper's Magic Shop, and it was owned by David Cooper, Tommy Cooper's brother. When he died, his widow moved the business to Eastbourne where she and her daughter Sabrina ran it until 2017 when it was killed by Internet competition.
Costumes were one of their big lines.
I can't believe Alanna has been here for 8 years, but apparently doesn't own any of this totally normal English attire. What's she been doing?
I know - I was awarded my crown and robe when I became a local government highway engineer.
The shop that I knew in Southampton was called "Just for Fun" and was primarily a "Joke shop" itching powder, fart balloons and all.
@@10pmixupuk65 I believe that shop still exists with loads of costumes. Its in the Marland shopping centre off Above Bar Street
BTW, Bonfire Night is NOT a holiday, and neither is Halloween. Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night used to be something we as kids really got excited about. Then, in the early 80s, those Halloween films came out, and for reasons I will never fathom, we managed to import the ridiculous American Trick or Treating thing. Anyway, I'm loving your content.
I agree. Hunting for wood in the bombed out houses in Liverpool. Storing and guarding the wood from the other streets for weeks before.
Halloween. Or bob apple night. Was far down the excitement list.
We had trick or treat before then ( i was kid in the 70's), ... probably always had.
@@hardywatkins7737 Yes, not an import... "The history of trick-or-treating traces back to Scotland and Ireland, where the tradition of guising, going house to house at Halloween and putting on a small performance to be rewarded with food or treats, goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as does the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween."
@@lukesball1 Yeah i suspected as much. Thanks for saying ... i never really knew.
No one has mentioned ‘Penny for the Guy”
The Sussex bonfire scene is pretty wild. Bonfire societies from across the county visit different towns on a weekly basis for a couple of months during the autumn leading up to to Guy Fawkes night. In Sussex, the bonfires commemorate Guy Fawkes but more specifically the burning of the protestant martyrs in Lewes by Mary Tudor who wanted to restore Catholicism. Sussex has a long history of protest, rebellion dating from the Barons War, the Reformation, the Commonwealth right through to Thomas Paine and the Rights of Man. The county motto is "We wunt be druv".
There’s no more reason for Americans to celebrate bonfire night than for people of the Uk to celebrate Thanksgiving.
The video you watched seems very keen on framing the protestants as villains and the plotters as brave freedom fighters. The more common idea is that they simply wanted power in catholic hands (theirs specifically). They tried to raise a rebellion but nobody came except the king's soldiers. The famous rhyme "Remember, remember..." does celebrate the plot being foiled.
I mean most people i know see guy as the good guy, yeah he was a bit of a rotter but he tried to blow up parliament which i think almost every brit has wanted at some point.
@@seldom_bucket People say that but it's just a joke, if someone actually carried out a terrorist attack on parliament I doubt it would be celebrated...
It IS modern Discovery. Do your really expect accuracy and history from it.
@@user-zp4ge3yp2o depends how many tories they take out.
@@user-zp4ge3yp2o He's not lying though ... that was true for many of us, that Guy Fawkes was the hero because he nearly blew up the government. - We were kids for goodness sake!
Speaking as a Brit with a humble background, we weren't told about the religious aspects as young children just that Fawkes was a bad man. Bonfire night for poor people (who weren't Catholic!) was a time for families to enjoy some firework displays. However, if you were poor, you could only afford small boxes of fireworks which didn't last long. So to make a "night" of the event we would make an effigy of Fawkes (out of contemporary clothes) and set them alight after the display. This provided an entertaining light display for a longer period of time.
That's it really.
Guy Folks was a Bad Un (Catholic) we got taught that in Plymouth. Hence the Burning!!! & Fireworks.....Remember Remember the 5th November 😃
Speaking as a Catholic, we were told as kids that Guy Fawkes was not a bad man at all, and so we had no effigy on our home bonfire, just the fireworks, sparklers, and festive foods. For many years as a student and afterwards I attended a regular Bonfire Night party with friends that included a "best guy" contest, typically depicting an in-the-news political figure, or just someone that had hacked us off during the previous twelve months.
The religious part is suspect at best, yes all the conspirators were Catholics but that certainly doesn't mean it was a Catholic plot. (Although the town of Lewes thinks otherwise!).
As well as making the Guy, "A penny for the Guy" was a thing. It was a way of raising money for fireworks.
Yes, and they were community events in working class areas.
My Mum was in charge of toffee & toffee apples.
Another family would do pork pies.
Another mushy peas and so on.
The money raised from ‘Penny for the Guy’ was used to buy fireworks.
Dozens of us would gather at the bonfire.
It was divine.
We did understand the Catholic message as there was a Catholic family who used to joke to burn themselves for our pleasure - but it was all in good spirits.
It might be worth adding that the Houses of Parliament featuring in this story are not the ones they use today. The old building was originally built in stages from the C11th to the 1820s, but it was destroyed (by fire of all things) in 1834. Today's building was built between 1840-1876, incorporating Westminster Hall, which dates from 1097.
Today it is known as WEFminster :-O LOL
So, you couldn't find a decent British documentary that told the actual history then? You disappoint me.
As a member of a Bonfire society, I can safely say that in Sussex its the best time of the year. The season starts mid September on Saturday nights and continues until mid November across various villages and towns. Lewes is by far the biggest and the highlight of the season- very crazy. There's a good couple of thousand people taking part in the multiple processions and many tens of thousands of people coming to watch. If you are planning to come down for next year i suggest you sort out where you are staying and how you are getting to/from the town as they usually close the roads and trains. Hope you can make it!
Lewes has six bonfire societies, and many of the surrounding villages and towns in Sussex have one of their own too. These latter tend to celebrate Bonfire in their own localities on days preceding the 5th November, but they join with the Lewes ones on that night for gigantic revelries. Though the majority of bonfire societies are in your neighbouring county East Sussex, your own town in Kent, Alanna, has a very distinguished one, Edenbridge BS (founded in 1928). Who knows, perhaps you will seek to join it yourself (details on their website)!
When I was a child, people used to make effigies of Guy Fawkes with old suits that would be stuffed with straw etc, and faces drawn on. Kids would go knocking on doors and ask ‘Penny for the guy’ so that would go towards fireworks. Then on bonfire night the effigy’s would be put on the bonfire and burned as a memorial to someone who tried to take down the parliament. Hope that’s helps.
Have a look at the War of the Roses. Lancashire vs Yorkshire. Enjoy 😊
Niki 🧡
Yep
"as a memorial to someone who tried to take down the parliament.". - Exactly! 🤣 It was supposed to memorialise the foiling of the plot but i think most saw it the other way around ... that someone nearly blew up the government!
@@hardywatkins7737 sorry my bad wording, but I agree that it was that he never achieved what he set out to do. I really mustn’t keep drinking the gin.
Go Yorkshire. 👍
I am Lewes born and bred. Personally I never really got involved but my mother's family had been.
Many families have members who have trained in pyrotechnics and the 7 societies make many of the fireworks are locally made.
At 06.00 bonfire morning the whole town is awoken by a huge explosion, the Lewes rouser. It repeats at the close of the day. Thousands flock to the town and the shops are boarded up. The railway station closes and all the roads into the town are closed.
The running of the burning tar barrels before throwing them into the river is done quite early but is worth seeing.
It is a spectacular evening and night. You're right it is the biggest B/F celebration.
Cliffe bonfire society is the most traditional. The processions march around the town for hours. Each society hold their own bonfire and each of the bonfires is about the height of a two story house and each society keeps its main tableau secret until the night. You need to be aware it's not very PC at times.
One of the Kray brothers was in prison there, I remember being told that in around 93, when passed on the bus.
I live in sussex and went to Lewes bonfire a few times about 25-30 years ago. With roads and rails shut I have not been back since. How do people actually get in nowdays?
I like down the road but still mean to make the effort to walk around the blocks to see it one year.
@@bobnevermind it’s not open to anyone outside Lewes now as it has became very popular. I watched it on YT last year.
@@bobnevermindYou have to try and get a hotel room or airb&b, public transport usually runs up to midday, but is then shut down until the next morning. Same with the roads.
I knew the names of the other guys! In fact, if I remember my history lessons, Robert Catesby was more important in the Gunpowder Plot (as one of its architects) than Guy Fawkes (as a mere functionary) - it just so happens that Fawkes is remembered as having been the weak link that caused the plot to be foiled. It's likely that he's also remembered for having been tortured - unlike the video implies, he was racked to the extent that he could barely even hold the pen to sign the confession that sealed his fate and that of his co-conspirators.
Bonfire Night has morphed largely into Fireworks Night since I was a boy, and it rather annoys me that nowadays it spills out over at least two weeks on either side of 5th November. When I was little, the fireworks took place only on that date and that made it all the more exciting. I looked forward to it every year, especially to being in the frosty night air of late autumn in the North West of England waving sparklers, admiring the fire and the explosions, eating chestnuts and drinking hot chocolate. You'd have loved it, Alanna, I suspect!
Catesby and Percy are probably the only conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot who are widely known among British schoolchildren, other than Guido Fawkes. At junior school I do remember drawing the big hats, beards, and seemingly long noses of a bunch of guys, as part of history projects in Michaelmas Term. However, only three names were regularly mentioned, and only Fawkes got the distinction of having a competition between each house as to the best effigy.
Possibly Kit Wright? I remember being taught about Kit Wright at school, but I cannot remember in what context.
One of my home counties,Northamptonshire,is rep. by another Gunpowder plotter : local landed gentleman,Thomas Tresham. 👌👍
Robert Catesby is an ancestor of Kit Harington (John Snow from Game of Thrones) on his mother's side, although confusingly Harington is also related to James I as well on his father's side, so he's got ancestry on both sides of the story, that's why Harington was involved in the production of Gunpowder, the TV drama in 2017 about the Plot.
Thomas Percy is one of the Percy family from Northumberland who have known to be involved in arguments with and links to the royal family going back to Henry IV's time (Harry Hotspur), Richard III (Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland), Anne Boleyn (6th Earl of Northumberland), Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots (8th Earl of Northumberland) and Charles I in the English Civil War (Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland).
The other conspirators apart from Guy Fawkes all died in a shootout with the Royal Guard, reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid versus the Bolivian Army.
Alanna, what the videos didn't say was that many of the conspirators were wealthy, and some well known figures in their respective areas, this is how they were able to get the gunpowder in the first place, and barrels were used in storing and transporting many goods not just gunpowder so, the barrels themselves would not have caused concern. The celebration has changed over the years, when I was young during the '60s and early '70s it was commonplace to see children make a 'Guy Fawkes' effigy and take it door to door or just in the street usually on carts, old pushchairs etc, and would ask "Penny for the Guy" and they would be given a few pennies or so for their efforts, this would start a week or so before the night itself, once the night arrived the 'Guy' would be put atop of the bonfire either in the backyard/back garden of the child's home or sometimes on waste ground/recreation ground locally for burning, along with the letting off of fireworks, the children were given things like 'Bonfire Toffee' and 'Toffee Apples' to eat, and 'Sparklers' to hold, with the onset of health and safety and the growth of large organised displays this tradition has faded now.
Yes. I'm very sorry the tradition is fading.
I know the historical 'documentary' is a brief outline- but there are some errors.They actually rented the building next to Parliament- and dug through from the cellar there to the HoP cellar.
The names of the co-conspiritors and their fates are well known to people who know their British history - but probably not to the average person at the Bonfire Night celebration.
I think the truth is that there are two types of celebration going on. Most people (who give it any thought at all) are celebrating the thwarting of the Plot- when I was a child we would burn an effgy of Guy Fawkes on our street's Bonfire. However, there are particular locations where the Bonfire Night celebrations involve the burning of effigies of modern hate figures- often Politicians. I don't think many people are supporting Guy Fawkes' plot as such. Lots of people, like you just lik the excuse to have fireworks bonfires and treacle toffee!
It wasn't the best film, was it.
Hey Alanna. I think your summary is fair. It's a celebration now. As a kid my dad would have a bonfire and fireworks in our garden and lots of friends and family were invited. I remember eating jacket potatoes, roasted corn on the cob and toffee apples. All rather fun as a young kid. Now I tend to meet up at a fireworks display with my brother and family.
That sounds lovely!
@@AdventuresAndNaps what don’t you like about our history
100% agree with you on this one. It’s definitely just a tradition rather than celebrating the actual event. And like you, being an atheist, Christmas is also just a tradition to me rather than a religious holiday. Great video that I’m sure was informative for both British people and our friends across the pond. Byeee
Why would anyone outside the UK celebrate Guy Fawkes night. It’s like people outside the USA celebrating Thanksgiving.
Yeah.
I suspect most Americans believe that the whole world celebrates Thanksgiving (and July 4).
@@billybudd5854More than one American has actually asked me if we celebrate Thanksgiving!
Canadian Thanksgiving predates American Thanksgiving (1578, in Newfoundland)
Well we celebrated it in Australia until 1980 (when the nanny state raised it's ugly head), we knew it was Guy Fawkes night but usually called it bonfire night or cracker night. Great times sadly all gone.
I grew up in a small village and rather than individual bonfires we had a village one in a large field. Majority of the kids would collect fire wood from the woods attached to the village and build a huge bonfire for everyone to enjoy. It normally took about 3 days for it to burn out. This was at a time when regardless of your age you could into shops which stocked fireworks and buy them.
On Halloween night they call it trick or treating, in Scotland it was known as guising.
In pre-millenium (and may be a few years just after), bonfire night was about having a get together with either family and/or friends in your garden with a fire on the go to roast horse chestnuts, baked potatos and served with some alcoholic drinks. A kind of evening garden party really with fireworks thrown in so people can practice saying "ooooH" and "aaaaH" everytime something sparkly went up in the air! :P
The story really begins with Henry VIII's schism with the Roman Catholic church which began the whole enmity with devoutly Catholic Spain. Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshireman, enlisted with the Spanish army (becoming Guido Fawkes) to fight Dutch protestants in the Eighty Years War.
so basically the same as ISIS terrorists.
The Dutch protestants would have been doing their thing with or without Henry VIII. The Protestant Catholic schism started in continental Europe, not in England. Indeed Henry VIII always saw himself as Catholic, just not one controlled by Rome, and the church of England he founded was Catholic in nature. There are members of the CoE to this day who maintain that the CoE is still Catholic and the Oxford movement in the 19th century built a number of churches, notably in Oxford and Brighton which many call "high church". They have the gilding, statues and incense burning more typical of Catholicism.
Meanwhile, even before Henry VIII split with Rome, there has been growing Protestant movements in England, Wales and Scotland. William Tyndale had, illegally, translated the Bible into English against Catholic doctrine and ended up paying for it with his life with the full approval of Henry VIII. That was in 1536, long after Henry had split from the Roman church.
The Scots went their own particular way with the rather austere Calvanism, rather than the other main continental European Protestant model of Lutherianism. Many in England had adopted the latter during Henry VIII's reign, and they kind of high-jacked Henry VIII's process with his one surviving son, Edward, educated, or maybe indoctrinated, as a hyper-Protestant king. He was to die young, to be replaced by the equally religiously intolerant Mary I (bloody Mary) and then the rather more pragmatic Elizabeth, who gradually became more Catholic as Spain was perceived as a threat to her life and throne.
The Stuarts were, equally, all over the place with James I/VI the being very Protestant and his grandson James II/VII being increasingly Catholic to be brought finally to the end with Mary II (co-regnant with William of Orange), another Stuart and the daughter of James III.
So that schism with the Roman Catholics was already brewing in England and Scotland prior to Henry VIII splitting from Rome. James I was a Scot, not English, and thus his Protestantism was not due to Henry VIII alone. Very possibly not even mainly due to Henry.
@@TheEulerID Interesting, thanks.
@@TheEulerID I mentioned the Dutch Protestants as a sidenote why Guy Fawkes, an Englishman born in Yorkshire, became Guido Fawkes after enlisting in the Spanish Army; they had little relevance to the Gunpowder Plot otherwise. I never said Henry VIII or the CoE were Protestant in the modern sense - it was seen as heretical for rejecting the authority of the Pope in Rome, and we all know how fond Spain was of heretics, whether they were Catholic or not; no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition! 😄 Although there were Protestent movements in Europe, the issue was Henry (and all subsequent monarchs) being the head of the 'heretical' non-orthodox CoE. As an Englishman, Guido Fawkes (and the other conspirators) would have a particular axe to grind with the English monarch, hence the Gunpowder Plot and why I said it all began with Henry VIII as the pivotal instigator.
Silly me for trying to keep what I had to say relevant and to the point instead of witing an essay though.
@@TheEulerID I went to a junior school that was aligned with the local Church of St. Mary Magdalene we as a school walked to the Church on a Wednesday and had a mass. I was an altar boy and on a Sunday I was the Thurifer one who carries the Thurible that contained the burning incense. This was Church of England and a high church.
anyone remember 'penny for the guy'? not seen that for years, maybe a victorian tradition when poor kids got the opportunity to make a few pence by installing an effigy of guy fawkes on a street corner somewhere. Also one of the videos refers to guy fawkes day, nobody in the uk would know that. Its guy fawkes night! Also now known as fireworks night (clue's in the title)
Or 'Bonfire night'.
@@hardywatkins7737 I used to do the Penny for the Guy thing when i ws a kid. ( have a dummy dressed up and ask people for a penny for the Guy ) Im 50 now for context
@@GeekLegionofDoom Yeah i'm 55, i remember those times.
Did Penny for the guy as a child in 1970s London.
According to Antonia Fraser's book on the plot, gunpowder manufacturers were allowed to sell any that the government didn't need on the open market and a recent anglo-spanish peace treaty meant there was a lot of excess knocking about, not very well secured. On a smaller scale it was also common for soldiers to sell their gunpowder to supplement their pay.
For the best bonfire celebrations,you have to go to East Sussex,a lot of towns and villages have their own bonfire societies but it does mean you have to cross the M20 (passport not required )
As a fellow Canadian, from Chatham-Kent. I can say it is still known and may be celebrated or remembered by some, more common in loyalist areas. I am involved with historical groups that mainly portray the War of 1812. Black Powder would have been readily available in that era as others have posted. 1 pound of powder is enough to send a 3lb cannonball almost 1km. So over 2000 lbs would have been shocking. The documentary, The Gunpowder plot: Exploding the legend. Recreated the event and building to show what the effect would have been
Fudamentally disgaree that we're celebrating Guy Fawkes as a rebel/hero - I'm old and I've never heard this take before. We all know that we're celebrating the foiling of the Catholic plot, and that's why we build an effigy of Guy Fawkes and burn it.
Over the years though it has definitely become less important. When I was a kid the celebrations were always on November 5th, and loads of families would have their own bonfires & fireworks. But then people started moving it to a convenient weekend which I think diminished it a bit. A lot of people also stopped doing their own celebrations and instead relied on larger community events, which again I think reduced its importance. And now the rise of Hallowe'en is starting to overshadow it - thank you American TV & film.
Born in 1955 I have to say that I agree with you .
I agree I find it a little odd if you are burning a effigy of the man to be celebrating them?
il tell you why this is happening, its because the americans cant handle that we dont like catholics and they try and turn the terrorist fawkes into a "freedom fighter" its ingrained in american culture that catholics can do no wrong, hell even the current american president supports terrorists and has helped fund catholic terrorism for all his adult life and yet nobody cares or attacks him for it.
I agree. I'm 79, and still recall the times of individual bonfires/parties. We never "Celebrated" the efforts of Guy Fawkes; he was a bad guy (sorry!), and his end was justified at the time, for trying to kill the king, and the elected MPs, just because he, Guy, didn't agree with his relious policies. Pure Treason!
i also remember eating the baked potatoes that were wrapped in either foil, or sometimes, mud, then baked in the edges of the bonfire.
We kids relished these spuds, and we even were told that gypsies did this with hedgehogs! How true that was I have no idea!
I'm American-born but my mother and family are British (Leicester in the midlands). I learn so much about my ancestral history and modern England from you it makes me feel out of touch. Time to take a long holiday to the motherland! Thanks Alanna!!
I hope you do get to visit. You would be most welcome!
God Bless America! 🇺🇸
Thank you so much for watching! 🙏
Leicester born and bred here🙋♂️ Nice to meet another person with connections to Leicester. Always welcome to visit.
For me, I think most English people learn about the gunpowder plot and the history of bonfire night as kids. To be honest, as it's a true British historical event, it's an exclusive British tradition that was also celebrated in some countries under the rule of the British empire. The symbol that the king (the most powerful ruler in the world at that time) was saved. And whether people see it that way or not, I think everyone knows why we have bonfire night
Fire is the reminder of tge only person to ever enter parliament with honest intentions. Love your channel
I remember Catherine wheels not spinning on the washing line post. rockets clattering on neighbour's sheds. bonfires in everyone's gardens .drawing shapes with sparklers. baked potatoes in the fire and mulled elderberry wine with bits of orange and cloves floating in it.
It used to be fun as a kid, putting your parka on backwards and sitting outside the pub, 'penny for the guy'.
Last time in the UK 2019 was spoilt not by trick or treaters, but by people setting off fireworks a month early.
Lewes is EASILY the BEST place to celebrate Bonfire Night (and it ain't THAT far from Kent, Honey!). Fantastic fun - and the Police maintain only a discreet and respectful presence. Combine with a pint or two of real ale or cider🙂, walk/stagger down to your chosen (very big) bonfire site (of which there are at least five) after the street processions, and your have the PERFECT recipe for an evening you'll remember forever. Trust me on this! BTW - the Lewes festivities are in fact a TWO-in-one event: the 'traditional' Guy Fawkes Night, but also the COMMEMORATION of the 17 Protestant martyrs who were burnt at the stake there, during the reign of Bloody Mary (a fanatical Catholic - like Guy Fawkes!).
Also, google "Penny for the guy". Kids have been dragging his efigy around begging for coins for centuries
Excuse me young lady. The Irish and Scottish immigrants to the USA brought Halloween tradition with them. Americans never invented it.
Americans only brought about using pumpkins for lanterns at Halloween but over here we traditionally used turnips to carve lanterns.
Bonfire night is still celebrated in Canada, but only in Newfoundland and Labrador. It used to be moderately celebrated throughout many parts of Canada, but apart from in Newfoundland and Labrador, celebrating it had died out by the beginning of the 20th century. It's still moderately celebrated in parts of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the former British Caribbean.
To my mind the most amazing Bonfire Night traditions are Lewes (which you saw) for the scale and commitment, and also Ottery St Mary in Devon where they run flaming barrels of tar down the street - the barrels range from little ones for children to carry on their backs(!) up to a giant one which requires four large men to carry on their backs together. Don’t worry though - they’re protected from the flames by rugby shirts and oven gloves.
Yes, Lewes has the history and the tradition: it's personal, so it carries on. It's just huge.
There are six bonfire societies, each parading to their own bonfires, so it takes all evening.
Not only does the town shut down, but the St John Ambulance brigade takes over the ambulance service, too, with enough members from Sussex, etc., in attendance.
Wow that's incredible!
@@AdventuresAndNaps Yes, It's something to see! I was part of St John's there in the 90s.
Then there is the banner across Cliffe High Street...NO POPEYE or summat like that😂
Lewes also has the record for deadliest avalanche in UK
@@mystified1429POPERY.🤣
im over 60 now, but in my childhood we used to make a guy, they actually sold guy masks back then. we made limbs out of (panty hose ) tights stuffed with news paper and put on it some old clothes and stood at the local train station with the poor fella sat in a pushchair or something asking for Penny for the Guy. This was just to get money to buy fireworks lol
aye, then we hoyed them on the bonfire :D
As a kid growing up in Scotland I remember 'Guising' whiich involved as making our effigy of Guy Fawkes then taking it around asking people for 'A penny for the guy' which we then spent on fireworks. We would also scour the area collecting any wood to make a bonfire from. This was back in the late '60s/early '70s. We didn't know anything about the history of it, just loved the idea of a big fire and of course the fireworks.
guising was on halloween you went round the doors of your local area and told a joke or a story at each door for a sweet or some form of treat. penny for the guy was making a guy and taking it round or sitting on a corner or outside the local pub or shop asking for money supposedly for materials for the bonfire or the fireworks for the celebration on the 5th of nov.
Celebrated in New Zealand, though without bonfires near wooden houses.
I didn't know that! Interesting stuff.
Interesting, thanks for sharing! Have to say looks like it'd be really fun to go to that bonfire celebration in Lewes
My distant cousin, Canadian pop singer Bryan Adams' middle name is Guy and his birthday is 5th November. Yep, he has British ancestry.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the magnificence of the performances in these re-enactments? 😆
Kit Harrington is descended from Robert Catesby, the leader of the Gunpower Plot.
My wife and I got a engaged in 1992 on this day. We are from Newfoundland Canade❤
I think you will find halloween has been very Americanised hence why it has dropped massively in popularity in the UK. In the 90s and before at least in Scotland halloween was a lot more popular than now but kept a lot more traditional than the commercialised version that they do today
NA Halloween and Christmas has ruined a lot of the celebrations in the UK.
@@Yandarval What? Halloween and christmas ARE two of the few celebrations we have in the UK.
@@hardywatkins7737 As it it has become much more commercial and Americanised over the last 30-40 years.
@@Yandarval How do you mean 'Americanised'? I can't see much has changed, except that it's somewhat less popular now.
Pumpkins...
Halloween is huge in the UK, it is an old Pagan holiday.. lots of shops sell vintage clothing. With other shops selling dressing costumes, used for Birthdays, hen or stag nights, clubbing events and other fun.
Guy Fawkes night now is now just fun, sometimes the effigy has a mask of a politician who is unpopular. It is now a gathering.
Lewes is in England. Lewis is in Scotland.
I was born on 5th November (Bonfire Night) 69 years ago.
My dad told me that Guy Fawkes was the last person to enter Parliament with honest intentions. 😂
we do hallowe'en here, its an ancient druid festival (samhain[saa'wyn]) - but we celebrate it slightly differently. The 'trick or treat' part is quite american but it comes from 'guising', that Irish and Scottish like to claim is exclusively from them but was ubiquitous across the isles.
For us it's like the darker myth side of something like Dia de los muertas, witchcraft etc, rather than costumes and sweets - on hallowe'en there are many haunted mansion tours(eg; Chillingham castle)
Hi Alana, my bonfire nights was in the late 50s and 60s in the Black Country on the edge of the countryside.
The rime we all learned at school
Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
Bonfire night actually started for us kids about a month before because we used to have the bonfire at home in the garden out the back. At that time there was two priorities
1. Getting the firewood and any wood would do, from the hedge rows last years old bed frames etc.
2. Building “a Guy” this was made from old clothes and any materials we (as kids ) could find and scrounge!
3. Getting money for fireworks.
The fire wood was got, as said, from the local area hedge rows, near the brooks and streams where trees were abundant dragging it home between us. We even used small choppers if there was no wind broken branches. The old bed carcasses from any old dumps that might be local. It took us weeks to get much you know us 10 to 14 year olds couldn’t carry much.
The Guy was a bit of a team effort with the mums and us kids. Mums sowing the old cloths together in what we now know as a mannequin from old trousers and jumpers and tee shirts, you know the throw away’s, and shoes. They also made the head probably with an old cap or Woolley hat. Us kids would find loads of old newspapers and material to stuff the Guy with.
To get the fireworks or rather the money for fireworks, we’ll that needed the Guy. We would go round the streets knocking doors for the traditional “Penny for the Guy” scrounging demand from the neighbours, this was together with down the village shops for the same reason getting all the pennies we could for buying fire works. This would be more successful with a good looking Guy of course.
The week before the night would be when we’d build the bonfire. These weren’t that big of course back garden size not big enough for anything much over 4ft tall. Of course we’d give the Dads the money to buy the fireworks of course you couldn’t get many with the the pennies we got for the Guy.
Bonfire night was brilliant. Setting light to the fire, putting potatoes around the base for roasting and the mums making the peas pudding etc. Dads lit the fireworks as long as they lasted. It was exciting and marvellous but it was all about families joining together to make a night of it. There was no Halloween though that’s a Scottish tradition nothing to do with us.
That was our traditional bonfire night families and kids coming together because it was traditional.
Strangely enough It was at Holbeche (we pronounce it Holbeach) House in Wall Heath, near Dudley, where many of the plotters made their last stand - just down the road from Himley Hall. The strange bit was that was my village growing up never really heard any of that while at school. Just a 1/2 mile from our house, only found this out in later years.
You will have to go to your local Fireworks display I’m afraid!! No penny for the Guy for you my girl your too old!! Ha!
We used to go to Dartmouth Park in West Brom as a kid in the 90s.
Nice one lovely love the 'cameo' style too! Just had a visit from an ' old ' friend who also remembers the music box ? X
I've never been in Britain for Bonfire Night. On my "bucket list" is going to Otter St Mary in Devon for Bonfire Night so I can see the villagers run through the street with flaming tar barrels on their backs!
I live close by, not in Lewes (Loo-issssss) and have been a few times - its an experience that the videos don't quite convey - such as narrow the streets really are, how noisy the fireworks are and how intense the light from the fireworks. There is an air of over protectiveness now which is typified by the closure of roads and the railway station to stop outsiders attending. Despite the rain, the estimate for 2023 was 20,000 visitors but I have attended in torrential rain when the crowds were almost twice that number. Outsiders now park along way outside Lewes and walk in - not easy on unlit country roads, such as the road to Ringmer village. I strongly suggest you attend in the next few years - it really is worth the effort. Not shown in the videos is that there are five bonfire societies in Lewes and each has a large bonfire and firework display which can be viewed from miles away but is better experienced close to. ... and finally, the parade walkers are not dressed as pirates in stripy jumpers - they denote the Sussex bonfires societies who raise large sums of charity money each year. Each society has it own local event which starts mid September and ends mid November.
Halloween started in the UK. That American statement made no sense.
Bristol (Brizol) have well organised bonfire, noisy fireworks & food for kids & parents alike. The ‘Roundtable’ event in Brizol-Downend is always packed. 👍
i went to the Grammar School in Lewes. the school is over 500 years old and like the town its steeped in history. bonfire night was the highlight if our year. it was pure carnage, exciting and dangerous. With the Castle and the tight streets totally full of people the atmosphere was incredible. Lewes also had the most pubs per capita in the country so lots of booze (starting at 14 lol, everyone used to get served). its a bit more tame these days but still worth a visit for sure.
That'll be the Old Grammar School, not Mountfield Road. I hope yours did you more good than mine did me , became Comp. in my last year.
@@mystified1429 yeh it was the old grammar school, i always thought the other grammar school was just a girls school? did it change to the priory school, what year was that?
@@anthonyjarvis9472 The Girls was near Southover Grange gardens and the boys was Mountfield rd. Next to the Sec. Mod. with a big fence round it ! Both changed in 1969 to Comp. and the fence was pulled down. Then called Priory school. Made me a Socialist because of it's elitism.There was a mix of good teachers and total eejits. LOL. Hope you did well @ yours, and it was worthwhile.😀
Alanna, you nailed bonfire night and Christmas. 100% agree.
🙏
Yes, you are right that it is (or was in my day) more of a tradition than anything else. It was about the event not the message but the message was still there in the background with the effigies and the message was definitely there at school. As kids we also celebrated him as an anti-government rebel (which wasn't approved of) and IMO, we could do with him again. At least figuratively, if not literally.
Guy Fawkes became famous as the person who was caught with the gunpowder; but Robert Catesby was the ringleader of the Gunpowder Plot.
I believe the leader of thr plot was Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes was more or less a soldier.
Lewes is the (main) county town of East Sussex. EVERY town and village in East Sussex has a Bonfire Society, and from September until Nov 5th a different place will have their Bonfire procession/fireworks display. This culminates in Lewes having the mother of all these processions/bonfire displays on or as near to Nov 5th as possible.
Sussex, and wunt be druv!
The adoption of Fawkes as a folk hero is relatively new, and is largely a result of the 'graphic novel' and subsequent movie 'V'. For a while the mask used in 'V' representing Fawkes was a very common thing seen at protests - I have even seen it worn at protests in Canada. Despite not being 'my sort of thing' I'd recommend watching the movie, it’s quite good.
yes we did that wrap up potatoes tin tin foil let them cook the skin was burnt but the potatoe i remember as being better than a jacket potatoe standing round a bonfire and watching fireworks going off sometimes i would throw throw in fireworks in the bonfire it looked nice (i was having a arty faze in my life) oh yes eating parking (its a short of cake) drinking mugs of tea coffee hot chocolate also eating sandwitches though maybe not in that order then we all take it in turns to say what we are looking forward to for the rest of the year
We don't need Halloween, we have bonfire night. Real horror rather than fantasy.
halloween used to be a really big thing in scotland at least . somewhere around the early 90s it started morphing into trick or treating like the american version .now it seems to be dieing out slowly
The hats are a fashion from roughly the same time as the Mayflower pilgrims. I've read the buckles are a bit of ridiculing from outsiders but the basic hat is quite similar.
The UK does not have many costume shops for that exact reason. We are NOT the US or Canada. The UK has the lived the real history. Which is why Ren Fairs etc is not really a thing over here.
Ren Fairs are very much a thing here, they just aren't called Ren Fairs. If you google "medieval reenactment" before summer every year, you will find many castles putting on "Ren Fairs" complete with costumes, mead, and simulated battles.
@@lukesball1 I consider the two events different things. Many reinactments are just that. Typically reinacting a historic battle. I do not lump US reinactors in to Ren Faires either.
I've been to Lewes twice and it's wild, you should go!
New mic makes you sound like you are on local radio. Lewes (said the same way as Lewis) is unusual in that it takes the religious war to a new level by burning an effigy of the pope every year (!!!) Some of the models have been quite impressive to look at.
I thought Alanna had been drinking until I realized the playback speed was set to 0.75 !
I concur with all the previous comments. However, I have followed and enjoyed your channel for a long time. Unfortunately on this one it seemed like you had imbibed or smoked something. The interrupting commentary totally eroded the flow of presentation. Was disappointed.
Hi Alanna,thank you for your thoughts on bonfire celebrations,it was interesting and very entertaining…especially your cheeky chuckles.Cheers,Roly🇬🇧.
Damn it, I thought we were celebrating the last time someone entered Parliament with any honest intentions !!! :)
Lets face it, it is just another excuse for people to eat a lot, and get as pissed as a fart! the same as Xmas. :)
Hi Alanna,
Thanks for another informative video. I love to learn about history. As an American, I have never heard of Guy Fox Day, so you taught me something new.
Thanks again,
Marc K
Fawkes not Fox!
The names Fawkes not Fox.
I find it amusing that North Americans refer to it as 'holiday'!
They call Christmas the holidays too. Baffling really.
@@amandasmith3716not forgetting Valentine's Day!
It brings memories of going out with our 'Guy' on our 4 wheel cart and asking for 'penny for the guy' . The guy was old clothes stuffed with newspaper and a masked head. Any money taken was used to buy fireworks. I always remember a man said we were beggars once and that put us off a bit. I can't see that happening any more. The stuffed guy was thrown on the bonfire. It used to be a popular event.
It has nothing to do with politics. Bonfire Night is a celebration of baked potatoes.
Sounds good to me!
Lewes (loo-wis) as in the Scottish island of Lewis. It is the county town of East Sussex, was the county town of the whole of Sussex when it was a single county. It has a wonderful Norman gatehouse and was the scene of the Battle of Lewes in 1264, arguably one of the most important battles in English constitutional history.
I did work with a member of the Cliffe Bonfire Society and helped him make his full Viking costume from real bronze, brass and leather, plus fireproofing and weighing several pounds. He would wear it for 5 or more hours on bonfire night also joining in other celebrations around Sussex and Kent.
My cousins have pulled the burning tar barrels in the race and a friend took the 'service' at the Cliffe Bonfire standing on a high platform with fireworks being thrown at him.
Walt Disney filmed it one year although I don't know what happened to the film.
I took my nephew to it the year before 'lockdown'. I had told my niece and nephews that Lewes people have to be rebellious and eccentric. After attending the precessions and one of the 7 bonfires he just said Lewes people are crazy and dangerous. I'll take that!
Agreed, we are crazy. My uncle was in Cliffe bonfire society. He dressed as a Viking for years and him and his stepson even went to see my aunt in the hospital when she gave birth while they were dressed up. In later years he became a Highlander.
Lewes is bonkers and a tad wild. Sussex is the best place for bonfire parades and Lewes is the best. Been a few times and can be scary. The town shuts and you need to plan the visit as roads in are closed, buses don’t run and the rail station closed. Cliffe bonfire after the parade is huge and probably the best of the Lewes bonfire societies.
Do they still burn an effigy of the Pope there?
@@toni-kakuyes
Lewes is the biggest anywhere outside of London.
The roads are closed but the train station stays open, last I heard.
@@toni-kaku I believe it is an effigy of the Pope at the time of the plot, rather than current Pope.
He was burned as it was believed that he was part of the plot.
Other people are also burned (in effigy), often the current Prime Minister.
Trains no longer stop there on bonfire day, at least they didn’t last year. It’s to keep the crowds down as it was getting dangerous. The Pope effigy is still burned but not because of the bonfire plot. The Catholic Queen Mary had 17 Protestants burned and they are known as the Lewes martyrs. The Pope is burned because of that even though he didn’t have anything to do with it. 17 burning crosses are carried in the parade in memory of their sacrifice.
I too am from Kent but I happened to be in Lewes for work one year on November 5th. I can confirm that the celebrations are actually mad, with all those flaming items being dragged through the High Street. Really glad I was able to experience it.
This was still big in the 80s. Sadly like many things American corporate greed has imposed its culture on us
As a kid, I enjoyed watching the fireworks but as an adult, I enjoy lighting the fireworks.
Two shillings is 10p, I think
The old 5p coins before they got shrunk were a shilling
Allannah the nursery Rhyme that we learned in school is as follows" Remember Remember the 5th of November!!
GUNPOWDER, TREASON & PLOT!!
For I see no reason for the Gunpowder Treason to Ever be Forgot ?? This was not the modern Houses of Parliament but the old Westminster Palace that later burned down all that is left today is Westminster Hall & the Jewel Tower!!
Most European and Indo-European and northern hemisphere based cultures have an autumn post-harvest 'festival of lights' celebration as the autumn equinox comes around.
Its linked to pre-Christian traditions that sneaked past the introduction of Christainity.
It usually involves bonfires and torches etc.
Every few centuries a new reason to have it is introduced to ignore the pagan roots.
In north america they adopted Halloween as the excuse to continue the celebration
Until the 1980's we did not really celebrate Halloween and so Guy Fawkes night or 'bonfire night' was our big autumn festival of lights.
I think the Discovery program is wrong. I don't think any British person celebrates Guy Fawkes as 'rebel'. I don't think it even occurs to them.
Its just an old tradition with a new face. The same celebration was happening before the Roman's turned up. It was celebrated by them and was continued by the Anglo-Saxons as a Germanic autumn celebration. Plenty of pagan beliefs managed to survive Christainity like Beltain/Walpurgis'(May day), Eostre (Easter), Samhain (Halloween) Yule (Christmas).
You could probably include 'Well dressing' and morris dancing' too, because I think its safe to assume they have pagan origins. Oh and don't forget 'wassailing'.
Not really correct.
There was no English tradition of bonfires in the Autumn months before 1605 and the Gunpowder Plot - the seasons for fires in England was Midsummer and New Year.
Beltain was an Irish festivity (and in those areas of Irish influence) and didn't occur in England.
Easter isn't pagan - there is only one reference to the supposed spring goddess 'Eostre' with no corroborative evidence.
Halloween is a mixture of the Irish Samhain, the Christian feasts of All Saints & All Souls and Hollywood.
That there was a festival of Yule is debatable as there is little evidence - the Danes in England called the festival of the Nativity 'Yule'.
Well Dressing, Morris Dancing and Wassailing are not pagan in origin - medieval or later.
When i was a kid in the 70's, we went out trick or treating
@@Wotsitorlabart "Well Dressing, Morris Dancing and Wassailing are not pagan in origin - medieval or later."
- I'd add maypole dancing to that list, but i suspected those are all much later traditions.
@@hardywatkins7737
Yes, earliest references to maypoles in England (although actually in a Welsh poem) are mid 14th century.
Well Dressing 18th/19th century.
Morris Dancing - mid 15th century.
Wassailing the trees - earliest reference Kent 1585.
Great video Alanna, I really like these where you go a little deeper into the quirks of British culture!.
Just a point from the first Josh Gates video, I've never heard of Guy Fawkes being celebrated as a rebel. I'm English and have been around for quite some time! I think he may have been talking to some rather unsavoury people to get that view!
It's probably more accurately known as the "Catesby Plot" as he seems to have been the main man behind it. Guy Fawkes was the fall guy, a religious terrorist nutter, who was easily talked into it.
I think you're right about bonfire night just being about the tradition. Few pay attention to the history, although most people know it (I assume).
To be honest, I've only been to a public firework display twice in my life. The more recent one was in 2021. Pretty good.
As to Halloween decorations, I don't think they were a thing here until about 2010. At least, i never saw them in shops until then. I have bought some this year, though. 🎃👻
Punisher tended to be nasty. When the monarchy was restored they dug Cromwell up and tried him for treason.
That's so vindictive!! 🤣
The English Parliament were cowardly & clueless after Oliver Cromwell died. They invited back a monarch & the House of Lords in a counter-revolution that re-installed remnants of feudalism that has held Britain's development back that remains here still. They partially reversed the counter-revolution in 1688-89 but the remnants of feudalism remain to this day. Digging up a corpse and hanging it is the spite of defeated forces who always lost when Oliver Cromwell was alive. The corpse was used as a terrorist device against the population and rotting bodies were often used like this.
when i was at school ( lol a long long time ago in a distantant galaxy where time was forgot) we celebrated bonfire night during school hours (in a safe way way no setting fire to anything) it was a night time thing here is something some of you may not know a little poem...remember remember the 5th of november gun powder treason and plot i see no reason why gun powder treason should ever be forgot
Nobody in their right mind would celebrate the current regime surviving. We need a new Guy Fawkes for today. Sorry TH-cam 🤣
You need to go to Sussex for the real Bonfire experience. Lewes is the big one of course but such a logistical drama. There are so many more smaller ones around East Sussex. From your Medway location, go to Rye is my suggestion. Nov 11th this year. Got to be seen to be believed has a Sussex Bonfire procession and Bonfire, a spectacle. X
Halloween not big in the uk ???? It started here but was Commercialized in the us its now lost its meaning in us you sould do the history of it
Hello alanna.a couple of things you might look at, old British coins and up hell a in Orkney new year celebration.great video keep up the great work.
Thank you so much. Have a good Night. From Madrid spain 😊👍
Those of us who are of our four nations understand the significance of this event as it is a major part of our history, not so much those who identify as British
Do you mean "don't identify as British"? Otherwise, I'm not sure what you mean.
four nations folk identify as English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh & have a long bloodline on these isles, British has in recent decades become a generic term for those who have come from outside the UK and then had children here, before the industrial revolution movement of people was very limited
@@beakybuzzard That's news to me!
Woohoo!👋🏻 you should go to Bridgwater Carnival, it will blow your mind!
you pause every freaking second. makes it unwatchable🤦🏽♀️🙃
I love the music being played by the brass band dressed a bit like mounties in the last clip: it's the Thunderbirds theme tune, and it takes me back to my childhood in the 1960s.
In the West Country the celebrations are called Carnival and there are a series of them in various towns with competitive clubs building decorative floats. The Largest of these is probably Bridgwater which dates from 1605. The towns were strongly Protestant back then and one of the plot instigators was from the area. Carnival nowadays is less Guy Fawkes/Gunpowder Plot themed, the fireworks are called "Squibs". It is not a coincidence that it's also the new seasons Cider production. The same clubs turn out for "Wassailing" in New Year to encourage the Apple Trees, a more Pagan Celebration. It involves cider soaked toast and firearms.
About twenty years ago there was a theory going round that the barrels of gunpowder would be insufficient to blow up the Houses of Parliament as they were at that time, so one of the tv stations, Channel 4 I think, held a kind of reconstruction of the Gunpowder Plot using the same amount of gunpowder mixed to the same formula that was used at the time. A building was constructed with a heavy floor and then the powder was set off. The building was blown to smithereens......
Hooray! 😂