On November 5 every year, Great Britain celebrates “Guy Fawkes Day“ - a national holiday, also known as “Bonfire Night“.
This day marks the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot - the failed attempt to blow up the British Parliament and carry out a coup d'état by a group of Catholics on November 5, 1605.
The conspirators in the coup, including 25-year-old Guy Fawkes, planned to blow up the House of Lords. 36 barrels of gunpowder were secretly brought into the basement of the building. Fox was supposed to light the fuse and flee the country. However, many people knew about the plot. It was discovered thanks to an anonymous letter to one of the lords warning him not to go to the opening of the session of Parliament.
On the night of November 5, a search was carried out of the building, where Fox was found in the basement along with the stored gunpowder.
He and the other conspirators were executed a few months later - on January 31, 1606.
The English Parliament then passed a law declaring November 5 to be observed as a “Day of Thanksgiving for Salvation”. The law was in effect until 1859, after which it was repealed, but the tradition of celebrating the day has survived to this day.
Now the holiday is known as “Guy Fawkes Day” or “Bonfire Night”. Every year on this day throughout Great Britain, the earth and sky are lit up with great bonfires and fireworks. As tradition dictates, straw effigies are burned, symbolizing the conspirator Guy Fawkes.