Today is a day that most American’s don’t even know exist or acknowledge. Today is Bonfire Night. This event was brought to my attention by Mrs. Beverly (an OVS art teacher). Being as curious as I am, I decided to look up some information to learn more about Bonfire Night. Here’s what I found.

Bonfire Night commemorates the survival of King James I after a group of conspirators attempted to assassinate him and to blow up Parliament. The assassination plot is known as the Gunpowder Plot because the conspirators attempted to blow up Parliament with barrels of Gunpowder. The explosive expert of the conspirators was a man named Guy Fawkes, it was his job to smuggle the gunpowder in the House of Lords and ignite it. Unfortunately for Guy Fawkes (and the rest of the conspirators) he was caught before he could ignite the gunpowder.

Upon being captured Guy Fawkes was taken to the Tower of London where he was tortured and forced to give up the names of his fellow conspirators.

Fawkes, along with the rest of the conspirators, were publicly executed.

On the night the Gun Powder Plot was foiled, the 5^th of November 1605, the English lit bonfires to celebrate the survival of their king. Thus Bonfire Night was born.