Bonfire Night

Guy Fawkes is a gunpowder plot having to do with treason. It is celebrated on Nov 5 because on this date in 1605 a group of Roman Catholics tried to blow up the houses of Parliament with the government, King James 1, his Queen and their son. It is a day of Thanksgiving because this plot was foiled …

The Samhain festival, whilst lost in history, clearly has a bearing on the modern celebration of Guy Fawkes night (AKA bonfire night) in the UK. The lighting of Samhain bonfires was clearly a Celtic practice and one that is seen still all over Europe in various guises.

The pagan practise of lighting bonfires at the start of November had survived (as it has also survived elsewhere in europe) from ancient times, and the state decided to "christianise" the practise by celebrating the foiling of the Gunpowder plot which happened to coincide with the more ancient bonfire night (more closely than one might suspect perhaps).

Of course, you rarely hear of Christians suggesting we not celebrate Guy Fawkes night in the UK simply because it has pagan origins - instead people concentrate on the celebration instead (fireworks, bonfires, candy floss and such like). This is in marked contrast to the Halloween celebration, which has become so embroiled with occultism and every kind of foolishness, that many Christians feel they have no choice but to oppose it.

But, of course, the burning of the "guy" does have a very ancient and hidden meaning. The difference is that (unlike halloween) the hidden meaning is forgotten.

Our information about Celtic practices, largely second hand accounts from Roman documents, is incomplete and it is hard to arrive at definite conclusions, but it seems that at least some Celtic tribes would burn prisoners in wickerwork cages on their bonfire nights, and that others may have burned wickerwork "green men" in a mock sacrifice associated with fertility or somesuch. The burning of a guy on bonfire night surely derives from this practice, rather than the gunpowder plot.

None of the Gunpowder plot conspirators were burned to death. Their sentences were, in fact, rather gruesome but ended with them being hanged, drawn and quartered.

We don't re-enact the execution of Guy Fawkes - we re-enact something far older.